Transgenders can soon aspire to lead combat troops in central paramilitary forces as the government is mulling allowing them take the annual UPSC exam for recruitment as officers in these forces deployed across the country for various internal security duties, officials said on Thursday.
Sources in the security establishment told PTI that with the central government notifying the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act in December last year it is now essential to provide transgenders a “level playing field” in all avenues and services including combat policing. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also sought time-bound “comments”, in favour or against, from the five paramilitary or Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) so that the Union Public Service Commission can be intimated whether or not to include the transgender category in the soon-to-be published notification for this year’s CAPFs Assistant Commandants (ACs) exam. The AC is the entry-level officer rank in the five CAPFS of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the SashastraSeemaBal (SSB). Once approved, the UPSC will advertise the option of ticking the transgender box, like male and female, in the gender column of the CAPFs (ACs) exams along with the estimated strength of officers required by each force this year, he said.