India Gets its First Women’s Team in Disaster Combat

In the federal calamity force NDRF of India, the first batch of over 100 women disaster combatants and rescuers have been inducted.

An all-women team of newly trained National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel was successfully deployed on the banks of the Ganga River in the Garh Mukteshwar town of Uttar Pradesh for contingency duties, a senior force officer said.

NDRF director general, Mr. S N Pradhan told PTI in an interview, “The first team of women rescuers is now on the field. The UP government recently acquired an NDRF team and they (females) went there (Garh Mukteshwar). Rescue boats and associated equipment were handled by the squad.”

Such workers have all the abilities to be named full rescuers.

For some time, the step to include female workers in the NDRF combat ranks has been in the development. The force, since it was established more than a decade ago, has been an all-male affair until now.

Over the last few months, more than 100 women workers have joined the NDRF and are being trained across the country with their battalions as soon as they complete their pre-induction course and training, the DG said.

Soon, the figures are projected to go beyond 200 female workers.

Constabulary and sub-officer (sub inspector and inspector) are the ranks where the female personnel are joining.

Each NDRF battalion of over 1,000 personnel may have 108 female rescuers as per authorisation.

The DG said the female workers would contribute to the power and expertise of the force to rescue victims of disasters

Mr. Pradhan said, “To respond to a situation, we may deploy all sections of an all-women NDRF team or a mixed squad of male and female workers. We choose the second because it makes a great difference on the ground where women, children and elderly people are rescued.”

He added that the initial feedback to the first women’s team in disaster combat has been positive.

He said, “They work well. I believe they would be a great productivity multiplier from initial feedback and a great symbol of pride, inclusion and gender sensitivity, which is also part of the ten-point disaster response agenda of the Prime Minister.”

At its current level, the force builds women-oriented infrastructure.

The NDRF currently has 12 operating battalions that are based in different states.

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Source: IBEF

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