PATNA: The first tribal women police battalion in the country has been raised in the state. Named ‘Bihar Police Swabhiman Vahini, the battalion has first batch of 222 women recruited in May this year. The recruits are undergoing training at BMP-2 in Dehri-on-Sone.The headquarters of this battalion is at Valmikinagar in West Champaran. The area has huge count of people from Tharu tribe. There is a separate women battalion in Bihar police.Chief minister Nitish Kumar participated in its raising day function at Mithilesh stadium (BMP-5) in Patna on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, the CM praised the women recruits, who were holding self-loading rifles (SLR) in their arms during the march past. “Don’t look at the faces of these women recruits who are still undergoing training. Look at their feet which are competing with their male counterparts. The way these tribal recruits marched today at the stadium reflected their determination and the efforts they have put in till now,” Nitish said.The CM said he was elated to say that Bihar is the first state to raise any such battalion. He also said some of the recruits were MSc in physics and other subjects. “Within next two to three years, the battalion will be raised completely,” he said.“I came to know through DGP K S Dwivedi that the central government was making efforts that police forces should have one third of women personnel, but in Bihar, we have already 38% reservation for women,” the CM said, adding 3% reservation in government job is for backward class women while 35% is for women in each category.DGP Dwivedi said the tribal women battalion was formed in September 2014 and 675 posts were sanctioned for it. “It was in 2015 that advertisements for recruitment in the battalion were published for the first time, but written exam was conducted in December 2017, followed by physical test in March this year,” Dwivedi said and added, “In 2006, Bihar police had only 880 women, which was just 1.23% of the entire force. Now, it is 15.62% with 13,701 recruitments this year.”

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