CRPF launches skill training for disabled troops

The skill training centre has been established by the country's largest paramilitary force CRPF at its group centre in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana.

Hyderabad: A national centre for ''divyang'' empowerment (NCDE) that aims to skill paramilitary personnel, who have been incapacitated in the line of duty, in fields like artificial intelligence, cyber warfare and para-sports was inaugurated by Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday.

The centre had been established by the country's largest paramilitary force CRPF at its group centre in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana and has facilities for accommodating and training those Central Armed Police Forces personnel who have lost their limbs during operational tasks.

The CRPF, which is in the thick of operations in the Left Wing Extremism affected regions of the country as well as terrorist violence-hit areas of the Kashmir valley, has at least 189 personnel who have lost their limbs or have undergone amputation in the last 10 years while they were in the line of duty or operations. The force has about 500 specially-abled children in the families of its troops.

"This centre is dedicated to those braves who protect the country without any concern for their well being. I congratulate the CRPF and its personnel who are always at the forefront to protect the nation," Reddy, the minister of state for home affairs, said after reviewing and inaugurating various facilities at the campus.

"That personnel who are being trained here have shown that the injuries can damage their bodies but not their self-confidence," he said.

Central Reserve Police Force Director General A P Maheshwari said the centre will "skill and re-skill our ''divyang'' soldiers and they should not feel that they are not relevant anymore after they received causalities in the line of duty."

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He said the centre, which initially has inducted CRPF troops, will be open for specially-abled troops from all CAPFs and their wards.

"We are witnessing new challenges in the low-intensity conflict domain of internal security...like cyber warfare.

"The war of guns is changing into the war of deception and war of perception... artificial intelligence tools are very important in this new warfare and we need to evolve from being internal security warriors to cyber warriors," Maheshwari said.

He said the establishment of the centre is in line with the CRPF culture of not leaving their troops behind either in the battlefield or during any aspect of life.

The centre will train troops in subjects like artificial intelligence and machine language, data analytics, social media monitoring, cybersecurity, audiovisual effects, advanced animation, blockchain management and these short courses will be run in collaboration with various companies and institutes present in and around the information technology hub of Hyderabad including the IIIT, the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Gagan Narang Academy for shooting.

The centre, as per officials, will also have a prosthetic limbs correction wing, a mediation and physiotherapy unit, an IT lab and a school to train for para-sports.

"The skilling and re-skilling training sessions will include a two months basic computer training so that the physically impaired warriors can also work in the cyber systems and other administrative wings of the force," CRPF spokesperson Deputy Inspector General Moses Dhinakaran had earlier told PTI.

The paramilitary force has also said it will bear the "entire cost" of providing prosthetic limbs for the amputees.

The CRPF, with over 3.25 lakh personnel strength, is designated as the lead internal security force of the country.

PTI