Only 10 per cent minorities in paramilitary forces

The Indian paramilitary forces have 86,000 personnel who are minorities. However, apart from Border Security Forces (BSF) and Assam Rifles, none of the forces have more than 10 per cent minority representation.

Of the 8.62 lakh personnel in six paramilitary forces — BSF, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB) and Assam Rifles — only 85,918 are minorities, which is around 9.95 per cent. The number of women from  the minority community is a dismal 2,240 and there are no women officers from these communities at the level of Inspector General or above.

Providing figures through a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said that there is no reservation fixed on the basis of religion in paramilitary forces. The question was raised by former Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran, now an MP from Kerala’s Vadakara.

 The BSF has the highest number of personnel from minority communities at 27,916 (11.69 per cent) out of 2.38 lakh. Of this, 730 are women from minority communities, the highest in any paramilitary forces. The CRPF also has 26,269 personnel, including 637 women from minorities out of 2.84 lakh. While Assam Rifles has the highest percentage of minorities at 16.16 per cent (10,533 out of 65,179), the lowest is in ITBP that has 6.18 per cent or 4,865  out of 78,721 personnel.