Nearly two lakh people were recruited in six Central Armed Police Forces like the BSF and the CRPF in the last five years as part of the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to provide jobs to unemployed youths, officials said.
However, as of July-end this year, there are still over 84,000 vacancies in these forces — the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Assam Rifles (AR). Steps have been taken to fill them too.
According to Union Home Ministry data, the highest number of 1,13,208 youths were recruited in the CRPF in the last five years (2017-2021), 29,243 were recruited in the SSB and 17,482 were hired by the BSF.
The CISF recruited 12,482 youths, the ITBP 5,965 and the Assam Rifles recruited 5,938 youths in the last five years.
In 2022 also, till July, the six central forces recruited 10,377 youths —- 6,509 in the CRPF, 1,945 in the SSB, 1,625 in the BSF, 229 in the Assam Rifles and 69 in the CISF.
On October 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a recruitment drive for 10 lakh personnel, a major chunk of the Central Armed Police Forces, to be appointed in the next 18 months.
Appointment letters have already been handed over to 75,000 newly inducted appointees.
According to home ministry data, as on July 31, 2022, there were 84,659 vacancies in the six Central Armed Police Forces.
While the CRPF had 27,510 vacancies, the BSF had 23,435 vacancies, the CISF had 11,765 vacancies, the SSB had 11,143 vacancies, the Assam Rifles had 6,044 and the ITBP had 4,762 vacancies.
A home ministry official said the government has decided to fill up existing vacancies in the Central Armed Police Forces by December 2023.
The total strength of the Central Armed Police Forces is about 10 lakhs.
The BSF guards the country’s 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan (except the 740 km-long Line of Control) and the 4,096-km-long border with Bangladesh.
The CRPF is deployed for internal security duties, maintenance of law and order and anti-militants operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.
The CISF guards vital installations like nuclear plants, key industries, metro networks and other important government buildings.
The ITBP guards the 3,488-km-long Sino-Indian border. The SSB guards India’s borders with Nepal (1,751 km) and Bhutan (699 km).
The Assam Rifles guards the 1,643-km-long Indo-Myanmar border and carry out anti-militancy operations in the Northeast.