In a first, Army invites women applicants for Military Police

New Delhi: In a first, the Indian Army on Thursday invited applications for recruiting women into the military police.

PC: Twitter/ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY

About three months back, the government had announced that women would be inducted into the force in the “Personnel Below Officer Rank” (PBOR) category.

The application window for recruitment of “soldier general duty (Women Military Police)” that opened on Thursday will be closed on June 8, the Army said in the advertisement.

“Honouring the announcement made by Hon’ble PM on August 15, 2018, on Jan 18, 2019 MoD took the decision to induct women for the first time in PBOR role in Corps of Military Police. Today, the first advertisement has been issued,” the defence ministry said in a tweet.

The Corps of Military Police is responsible for preserving “good order and discipline and to prevent breaches of the same by persons serving in or attached to the regular Army”, the Army says on its website.

The responsibilities of those appointed in PBOR include investigation of offences such as rape, molestation and theft; military operations where the Army needs police assistance; assistance in evacuation of villages during cross-border hostilities; crowd control of refugees comprising women and children; frisking of women during cordon-and-search operations (mostly in Jammu and Kashmir); and ceremonial as well as policing duties.

Besides this, PBOR personnel also run prisoner-of-war camps in conflict situations.

Military police personnel have been part of UN mission contingents in Congo, Somalia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, the Army says.

Last year, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had said last year that the Army was yet not ready to induct women in combat roles. (UNI)