Women border guards get special facilities

New Delhi: The SSB women personnel on the frontiers have got much-needed gender-friendly facilities with the border-guarding force providing them with private barrack cubicles and sanitary pad incinerators for the first time.

As part of the initiative to ensure better working conditions for the female staffers, the paramilitary force has also ordered procurement of suitable and body-fit size protectors, bullet-proof vests, helmets, shoes and raincoats for women troops on combat duties.

The Sashastra Seema Bal, guarding the Indo-Nepal and the Indo-Bhutan borders on the country's east, has also modified toilets in the border areas to ensure privacy for women, who often work odd hours due to the nature of their duties.

“We have created some separate living blocks for women troopers in the barracks at their place of posting,” Archana Ramasu-ndaram, Director General, SSB, said. The paramilitary force has been working on the idea for about a year, said the DG.