Did you know that women constitute merely 7.28 per cent of the Indian police force? According to a 2019 report by Status of Policing in India, of this 7.28 per cent, 90 per cent of the women are constables, while less than 1 per cent hold supervisory positions. So when news about 17 young women training to be part of the state’s special operational team, Garuda, makes headlines, it’s something to take note of.
According to reports, these women are preparing to be part of Karnataka’s anti-terrorism force, and are currently training at Bengaluru’s Centre for Counter Terrorism to shoot, rappel, rope walk, handle explosives, and terror, while the work to build their endurance for a gruelling 12 hours, daily, under deputy director, Lt Col Rohit Nayak, and his team led by Superintendent of Police (SP) M L Madhura Veena. We can only expect a highly-trained, and capable team of Garuda commandos to soon be deployed. The Garuda anti-terrorism force, a special operational team of the Karnatak Police Force, was formed in 2010, and for the first time in over a decade, they will be training 50 women to be a part of this force. Their two-month long training will be followed by a written exam, after which they will become active members of the team. As told to the New Indian Express, M L Veena the only woman SP in the Centre for Counter Terrorism, of the Internal Security Division (ISD), said, “They will form the first all-woman commando team and are undergoing training to handle any kind of terror attack or save victims of such attacks.”
According to reports, the Response Counter Terrorism Team will be based in Bengaluru, and will be able reach any part of the city in 30 minutes. Reports further state that these commandos will be deployed in industrial areas with high concentration of IT-BT companies. They will also patrol various sensitive areas, including the coastal region of the state.
Image Courtesy: Twitter/DP Satish (@dp_satish)