Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), is celebrating its 59th Anniversary on December 28, 1998. This is not a mere chronological milestone but signifies an eventful saga of successes and sacrifices. CRPF’s distinguished service to the Nation has earned it the sobriquet - Country’s most Reliable Police Force.

Established in 1939 as Crown Reserve Police, with one Battalion strength, it has today grown into a mammoth organisation of 137 Battalions. Much of this growth was ad hoc and unplanned; ten / twenty Battalions were added at a time at various stages, to meet the security needs of the Country. Such an unplanned growth, created many administrative and organisational problems. The Force was and is, constantly on the move, without respite. There are over 20,000 personnel in Jammu & Kashmir and 30,000 in the Northeast. Fed up with constant moves, CRPF personnel, derisively describe themselves as ‘Chalte Raho Pyare Force’. Adhocism has became the creed. There is urgent need to restructure CRPF to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Security situation in the 21st century will continue to cause us concern. With the collapse of Bipolar world power structure and after Pokhran-II, India’s position as a dominant regional power in South Asia is being grudgingly accepted. Success brings its own enemies. Unfriendly powers, piqued at India’s progress, are doing their best to destabilise India and consequently, we are having ‘Proxy War’ in J&K and ‘Low intensity Conflict’ in the Northeast. With the continued economic development and Democracy taking firm roots, the expectations of the common man have increased and he is ever disgruntled at the slow progress and divisive forces exploit this discontent and large scale disturbances take place on class, caste and communal considerations.

Failure of Political leadership to meaningfully respond to these danger signals, give birth to political violent movements, which are in turn exploited by the vested interests to destabilise India. So far, responses to these challenges to Internal Security, have been one of adhocism. With threats to National Security assuming alarming proportions, we cannot afford to divert the Army and Border Police Formations to internal security tasks. CRPF, with its experience of working closely with the State Police Forces and Civil Administration, should be entrusted with the task of tackling internal security problems. This would call for a complete overhaul of the Mission, Goals, and organisatioinal structure of CRPF.

The Mission of CRPF in the next Century would be:

To achieve this mission, organisational Goals are to be recast as:

• Specialise in effective Management of Internal Security;
• Create capacity to render support to Defence Forces during external aggression; and
• Prepare to provide assistance to Civil Authorities to deal with:

To achieve these goals, functional reorganisation of CRPF into following wings will be necessary.

• Internal Security Wing;
• Defence Assistance Wing;
• Law and Order Wing;
• Rapid Action Force; and
• Civil Emergency and Relief Wing.

As every personnel is entitled to two months leave and 15 days casual leave in a year and with one sixth of the Force under Training at any time, and vacancies arising due to retirements and casualties, the deployable strength of the CRPF is only 55% of the sanctioned strength. To meet its commitments, CRPF needs a sanctioned strength of 2.5 lakhs. This strength should be spread out in the Country into 25 Sectors, under the command of an IGP with a strength of 9,000 personnel each. This will enable CRPF to take on tasks around the country obviating the present practice of moving personnel over long distances across the Country.

Authority and operational responsibility should be decentralised. The Director General located at Delhi, will confine himself to Policy matters; there will be five Regional Additional Directors General for the five Geographical zones with full autonomy to take administrative and operational decisions. Each zone will be further divided into Five Sectors under an IGP each, with 9,000 personnel under him comprising of:

• Internal Security Wing 2 groups x 1,500 3,000 personnel
• Law and Order Wing 2 groups x 1,500 3,000 personnel
• Rapid Action Force 1 group x 1,300 1,300 personnel
• Civil Emergency & Relief Wing 1 group x 700 700 personnel
• Defence Assistance Group 1 Group x 1,000 1,000 personnel

Thus, 25 sectors will have 9,000 x 25 = 2.25 lakh personnel. Director General will have 25,000 personnel directly under him to provide personnel for Training, Communications, Computer, Medical, and other tasks to the zones and sectors on need basis.

Internal Security Wing

All personnel on enlistment, will first join the Internal Security Wing and serve for five years. As young personnel are needed to fight divisive Forces, the maximum age limit for enlistment will be fixed at 21 years and High School graduation will be the minimum educational qualification. This wing will be equipped on par with Infantry units of the Indian Army and personnel will be trained in Jungle and Desert warfare and counter insurgency operations. As the present battalion structure results in wastage of manpower, this wing will be organised into ‘groups’ each with four fighting teams, a support weapon team, an intelligence and communications team, a bomb disposal and explosives team and an Headquarters team.

During external aggression, as the Defence Forces move forward, there is need for a Para Military Force to safeguard and maintain order and peace in the rear areas. A dedicated group in the CRPF, will be tasked for this purpose. This group will normally train with an Army Division in the Sector and will be patterned on the Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the Army. It will remain stand-to and will not be deployed on other duties except in emergencies. This group will be familiarised with International conventions pertaining to Prisoners of War and Occupied areas etc. Personnel will move from internal security wing to this wing and serve for two years.

After service in the Internal Security Wing and the Defence Assistance Wing, after a Conversion Training, personnel will move over to Law and Order Wing. They will be armed with non-lethal weapons and Mob Dispersal equipment, and given specialised training to deal with demonstrations etc. in a Democracy. A Mahila Component will be provided in each of the operational units of this wing.

This Specialised anti-Communal riot group of the CRPF, will continue to perform its present role. It will be restructured to provide capability to act in small self contained units. The personnel will be drawn on deputation from the Law and Order Wing and will receive specialised training in handling communal riots and rendering relief and succour to the riot victims. One third of this Force will consist of Mahilas.

As Natural calamities strike our country with sickening regularity and as there is no specialised agency to deal with them, this wing of the CRPF will fill this void. Deputationists from the Law and Order Wing, chosen for their specialised skills, will be trained and equipped to deal with different kinds of natural disasters.

At present, the States and Union Territories have a tendency to requisition CRPF, more as an alibi than based on actual needs. Consequently, there is lot of wastage of manpower. The sector IGPs will be made responsible for keeping close touch with local developments and deploy the Force locally to meet the situations. If more strength is required, it will come from within the Zone. IGP will be responsible to train and keep his personnel in operational readiness and he will have the freedom to deploy them on need basis, within his sector. Similarly, Zonal Additional D.G.P. can deploy the personnel within his zone.

CRPF is the only C.P.O. having Mahila Battalions. The problems of women as they grow into middle age are manifold and they will not be able to continue to perform ‘Fighting Jobs’. As it will not be possible to accommodate all Mahilas in ’Desk Jobs’, there should be a provision to allow the Mahilas to retire after 15 years of active service on Full Pension.

These two are the most neglected areas in CRPF at present. The Career of personnel should be planned on a scientific and enduring basis to enable them to develop organisational citizenship. To make the personnel identify themselves with the well being of the Groups to which they belong, there should be permanence of the location of the Headquarters of groups and all welfare activities like separated Family accommodation, Medical and Educational facilities are to be created around the Group Headquarters. Personnel should be encouraged to build their homes in their vicinity. CRPF personnel should get all the facilities enjoyed by the Army Jawans.

There is need for an independent ‘Ombudsman’ for CRPF to look into the grievances of personnel as the traditional system of senior officers dealing with this has woefully failed.

Action Plan

To implement these suggestions, a competent Expert Group should be constituted to work out an action plan and decide on modalities for smooth restructuring and transition.

A professionally competent and vibrant CRPF will be an asset to the Nation and will help the Citizens to prosper by maintaining peace and tranquillity in the Nation.