ATTRITION AND SUICIDES IN CPMF

Central Paramilitary forces find it tough to battle attrition, suicides

In what should be a major cause of concern, the Central Paramilitary Forces are not only witnessing an alarming attrition rate — over 850 personnel are leaving the forces every month on an average so far this year — but also suicides by its personnel, with 10 cases being reported every month.

As many as 8,550 CPMF personnel opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), with maximum from the BSF (4,852), followed by the CRPF (2,128). With regard to suicides, CRPF tops the list among the six CPMF with 38 of its personnel committing it so far followed by the BSF (36).

Other forces where personnel took VRS are Assam Rifles (758), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) (329), ITBP (252) and CISF (231).

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh, however, said, “Only few central armed police force (CAPF) personnel took voluntary retirement. Generally, the central armed police forces personnel have cited personal/domestic problems as reasons for seeking voluntary retirement.”

The Government has implemented measures like ensuring a transparent leave policy, revamping of grievances redressal machinery and increased risk, hardship and other allowances, among others, to deal with the situation, Singh sought to assert.

Other measures to check the growing attrition include yoga classes for better stress management, recreational and sports facilities, provision of STD telephone facilities, medical and canteen facilities, he pointed out.

The maximum number of ‘firing on colleagues’ (fratricide) cases — three — were also reported in CRPF comprising close to three lakh personnel, the Lok Sabha was further informed.

The CRPF was closely followed by Border Security Force (BSF) with 36 suicide cases and two cases of fratricidal killings, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) with 11 suicides and two cases of firing on colleagues and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) with ten suicidal deaths and one instance of fratricidal murder.

The other forces like Assam Rifles recorded eight suicides and one case of fratricidal incident, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) had four suicidal cases and the National Security Guard (NSG) had two such incidents this year.

“The causative factors in most of the cases were found to be generally the personal and domestic problems like marital discord, personal enmity, mental illness and depression among others and were not related to the forces as such,” Singh told the Lok Sabha.

“The corrective steps being taken by the Government are regulating duty hours to ensure adequate rest and relief, grant of entitled leave to the needy personnel, provision of recreational facilities, providing opportunities for team sports and games, training in yoga and meditation, organising talks by doctors and other specialists, regular interaction with personnel by senior officers among others,” Singh said.