BSF to allow jawans to live with spouse

To ward off AIDS

Raman Srivastava, Director General of the BSF, said the decision was taken after 299 cases of HIV/AIDS were reported among the personnel of the border guarding force.
“We have taken the decision to allow our personnel to keep their spouse at the nearest village or town of his posting,” Srivastava said.

The BSF is also contemplating to induct a special course on HIV/AIDS for the new recruits to brief them about the disease. “All BSF personnel enjoy two months leave besides 15 days casual leave in a year. But, allowing them to keep their spouses near the place of posting will help them in keeping themselves physically and mentally fit,” he said.

With an alarming increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases among police and paramilitary personnel, the Centre has decided to convene a national conference later this month to chalk out strategies to combat the challenge.

Situation
The conference will also take stock of the initiatives taken by the Home Ministry to streamline paramilitary forces and state police personnel to ensure the successful implementation of the national AIDS control programme.

Representatives of seven paramilitary forces — CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, NSG and Assam Rifles — and the state police will take part in the meeting.
To prevent the spreading of HIV/AIDS among policemen, an action plan has been implemented and a task force constituted for the purpose.

The move to deal with the challenge came following reports of the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases in police forces. The CRPF also reported 273 full blown cases of AIDS in four years between 2005 and 2008, including 78 in 2008 alone. Besides, the largest paramilitary force reported 1,547 cases of HIV positive in the four-year period — 665 alone in 2008.