For the first time, girls clad in colourful attire rushed as they took part in a police recruitment campaign. At least 1,500 Kashmiri girls took part in the drive this week, a shift from the past, when girls would fight against government forces in intense conflicts.
Since the abrogation of Article 370, which earlier granted Jammu and Kashmir a special status, with the power to have its own constitution in 2019, which was marked by months of communication blockage and lockdown in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), stone-pelting events have decreased.
The J&K Police Department held a recruitment drive for constable rank positions for a woman battalion earlier this week at a training site in the Humhama region of Srinagar.
The participants defied societal taboos to participate in the drive, which was organised in response to a police advertisement requesting Kashmiri candidates who had applied for constable positions to take part in a physical exam from June 28 to June 30.
The physical examination took place at the Recruitment Training Centre (RTC) of the Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF), which is staffed by thousands of paramilitary members. Several of the female participants indicated they were joining the police force because they were unemployed, while others said they liked it. Several female special police officers (SPOs) had already resigned as a result of militant attacks on some of their co-workers.
Danesh Rana, the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for Coordination, said it was the first time the police had held recruitment at the battalion level in Kashmir.
Women's battalions are being recruited alongside the two men's border battalions in Srinagar, according to Rana, in order to strengthen up border security.
Separate recruitment for the border battalions will begin on July 3rd in the northern Kashmir districts of Baramulla, Bandipora, and Kupwara, according to a police official.
Parts of these districts have a live Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, and insurgent activity has increased recently.
Gurinderpal Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Kulgam, remarked that women are joining the police force in large numbers.