At present, CISF, which has 1 lakh 77 thousand personnel, has 7 percent women but they do not have a separate battalion. Generally, there are an average of 1000 personnel in the battalion.
The CISF headquarters has started preparations for initial recruitment, training and selection of locations for the headquarters of the new battalion. The training is being specially designed to create an elite battalion capable of performing diverse roles such as commandos in VIP security and security of airports, Delhi Metro Rail.
The proposal to form all women battalions in CISF was initiated after the direction of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the occasion of the 53rd CISF Day celebrations.
At that event, Home Minister Shah had said that CISF is the only force among all the central police organizations in which we can increase the number of women personnel, because whether it is airport or metro, every day you have to increase the convenience of 50 percent women passengers so that their journey can be smooth. He said that efforts should be made to take the ratio of women personnel in CISF from 94:6 to at least 80:20.
The CISF provides anti-terrorism security to various government establishments including nuclear and aerospace establishments. Many private companies also employ CISF personnel to protect their industrial establishments and pay more than Rs 100 crore annually. Infosys offices in Bengaluru and Pune and the Reliance refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat are some of the private users of CISF services.
