Assessment of Physical Infrastructure Availability for Women BSF Personnel: An Empirical Study

Women have been recruited in the executive branch of BSF (called General Duty branch) since 2008. Over the years their numbers have risen and their strength has crossed 5,000. However, they are still merely 2.16% of overall strength of BSF. Considering the overall socio-cultural situation of India with particular reference to safety and dignity of women in BSF, there is a need for assessment of availability of physical infrastructure for women personnel in BSF. It is in this background that the present paper endeavours to undertake an analysis of what all physical infrastructure they are entitled to as per government policies, availability in reality and what is their viewpoint on it’s availability with particular reference to privacy, living conditions, toilets and women specific infrastructure like sanitary pad incinerators, crèches, etc at different levels where they are deployed for performing their operational duties. The study finds that adequate physical infrastructure is available at Bn HQs and above as well as BOPs. However, there is urgent need to improve the existing physical infrastructure for women when they are deployed away from built up premises e.g. Naka Points, etc.