Take steps to prevent suicide cases in paramilitary forces, parliament panel tells govt

A parliamentary committee has suggested the Union Home Ministry to look into the rising suicide cases in the paramilitary forces and suggested increasing facilities in order to prevent them. According to government statistics, as many as 360 CAPF personnel committed suicide in the last three years.

New Delhi: Amid rising cases of suicide in the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), a Parliamentary Committee has suggested the Union Home Ministry to look into the cause of such incidents very seriously.

The government statistics, available with the ETV Bharat, reveals that as many as 360 CAPF personnel committed suicide in the last three years.

As many as 96 personnel committed suicide in 2018, the numbers jumped to 130 in 2019 and 134 in 2020.

"Facilities like adequate leave, communication, better treatment of ailing family members, quick disbursement of pensions, risk and hardship allowances should be provided to the CAPF personnel as incentives which will help to reduce their stress level to a great extent," the committee headed by Congress MP Anand Sharma said in its report.

The committee noted that just like army personnel, the CAPF personnel are also posted in the treacherous, mountainous and snowy terrains.

"...Therefore, the MHA should take up the matter urgently so that the CAPF personnel also need to be given the risk and hardship allowances as admissible to army personnel," the committee said.

The committee observed that the defence force personnel in Battalions below officers rank (PBOR) are entitled to 30 days CL and CAPFs (BSF, SSB, CRPF, ITBP and AR) personnel in battalions of all ranks are entitled to 15 days CL in a year.

"They meet almost equal operational challenges, hardship and carry equal stress level. MHA may review the leaves given to the CAPFs to ensure that they do not feel discriminated and are able to spend adequate time with their families. This will also help in reducing stress among the CAPF personnel," the committee added.

The committee observes that the current housing satisfaction level of the CAPF is less than 50 per cent.

The CAPF personnel has only a 45.74 per cent satisfaction level over housing facilities.

"It is the duty of the government to provide accommodation and satisfaction to the force personnel who are deployed at tough terrain with harsh climatic conditions," the committee said in its report.

The statistics said that the housing satisfaction level among SSB personnel is as low as 26.17 per cent, followed by ITBP with 39.93 per cent.

"In view of the fact that still there is a shortfall of 1,45,602 dwelling units for CAPFs, sufficient budgetary allocations should be made to provide adequate accommodations to the CAPFs and ongoing construction of 23,973 houses should be completed within a specific time frame," the committee said.

When contacted, former director-general of Border Security Force (BSF) Prakash Singh has said that the government need to look into the matter seriously as CAPF jawans also perform tough duties like their counterpart in Defence.

"The government should really give a serious thought on the grievances of the CAPF. Paramilitary personnel should also get better benefits, if not similar to the army personnel," said Singh.

It may be mentioned here that the Home Ministry has also taken some measures to reduce stress and improve the working conditions of CAPF personnel.

Of late, in order to provide better healthcare facilities to officers and jawans of CAPFs, the "Ayushman CAPF" scheme has also been launched in association with the National Health Authority (NHA).