The Union Home Minister Amit Shah's announcement regarding at least 100 days leaves for all Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) jawans in a year will be implemented soon and a policy has been prepared in consultation with all stakeholders, the officials in the security set up said.
The Home Minister in 2019 had announced that all CAPFs jawan will be given at least 100 days leave in a year so that they can spend more time with their families.
According to the officials, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been examining all the details about the proposal before making the policy and the CAPFs have also been asked to submit its recommendations to the ministry at earliest.
The officials also said that MHA recently held several rounds of the meetings to frame the policy and discussed the ways to implement it. The last meeting was held in the second week of March to sort out the delays in implementation.
It is expected that the 100 days annual leave policy is likely to be implemented by the next month across all para- military forces, they added.
The new annual leave plan aims to reduce work-related stress of over 10 lakh troops across the CAPFs, who have to perform arduous duties in some of the most challenging and hostile environmental conditions in remote locations.
Recently, the Central Reserve Police Force DG Kuldeep Singh had said that on an average, a jawan in the CRPF gets around 60 to 65 days of leave in a year. "If the proposal to enhance the casual leave component from 15 days to 28-30 days can be brought in, then 100 days of leave for jawans can be done," Singh said.
The move to enhance leaves came following the increasing numbers of suicides and fratricides incidents in recent past.
As per the data shared by the government in the Parliament, a total of 25 fratricide incidents have taken place in the CAPFs during 2019-2021.
The highest number of these incidents took place in the CRPF with 11 cases followed by nine in the BSF.
Further as per the data till August 2021, a total of 680 CAPF or central paramilitary forces personnel died by suicide in the last six years. The officials in the force said that these figures have now crossed 700 mark.
"If this 100 days annual leave plan is fully implemented across the para-military forces, this can address the issues of suicidal tendencies among the jawans and also possibly address the concerns related to the high number of personnel opting for the Voluntary Retirement Schemes," a senior official said.