Women BSF jawans to don combat roles in Sunderbans

New Delhi: In the Sundarbans region of West Bengal, where India shares a water border with Bangladesh, women jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) will patrol.

Setting an example of women empowerment, the South Bengal Frontier has independently deployed women in combat roles at the floating Border Outposts (BOPs) to guard the international border.

BSF apprised that the responsibility of BOP Ganga (one of the 6 new BOPs) has been assigned to women jawans, who will assume the role as combat officers, to increase surveillance in the area.

Amrish Kumar Arya, DIG, South Bengal Frontier, said that it was the first time in BSF's history that all-women jawans had been deployed in the inaccessible areas of Sunderbans for conducting a floating BOP operation and border patrolling.

The security of the region, spread over hundreds of kilometres between India and Bangladesh and 24 Pargana divisions of the North and South, has always been a challenging task.

Infiltration, including cattle and drug trafficking, is considered a major problem in the region.

With the area being surrounded by dense forests or water, the construction of land border posts is impossible, that is why vigil is maintained here by creating floating BOPs.