The first-time deployment of women officials by the BSF on the Indo-Pak border has brought along a feeling of relief for hundreds of women-folk in villages situated along the Indo-Pak border as now they would not only be able to enter their fields on the other side of the fencing after 18-19 years, but they would also be able to contribute to their family income by helping their men-folk in farm operations.
The fencing was put in place in border areas of Amritsar in the year 1989-90. From then onwards, the farming families had never been able to send their women-folk to their fields across the fencing as the mammoth fencing gates were manned by male BSF officials who, allowed only men-folk to cross the fencing by subjecting them to exhaustive frisking. What apparently made women to be reluctant in crossing over to their fields on the other side was the fear of frisking by the male officials at gates.
Their long-pending demand of deployment of women constables and officials has been implemented with female BSF officials’ first batch taking over reigns of fencing gates at some places and exhaustive border guarding exercise. “The deployment will be helping us in more than one ways.
Emotionally, it has a lot of importance for us as we will be able to see our land holdings across the fencing for the first time after 1990. Then our families will be saving money as we will be able to contribute to farm operations and our men folk will not have to rely upon costly labour,” said Raj Kaur of Roranwali village. Joginder Singh had a different reason to smile.
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