When security forces visit a village in search of maoists in Bastar villages, the locals dread not knowing what's going to happen. Now, the presence of the first CRPF woman officer has changed all this. Usha Kiran,27, is CRPF’s first woman officer to be posted in the Maoist-infested part of the region.
A former national athlete, who represented Delhi in triple jump, Kiran is one of only two women CRPF officers on duty in Bastar. Archana Gaura, the other woman officer, is in Kondagaon. Hailing from a Gurgaon-based family with ties to the CRPF – her grandfather and father were ex-personnel of the force – Kiran said the villagers feel comforted by her presence. “I talk to the women. They are scared of male cops and officers. But with me, they are more relaxed,” she pointed out.
Battling Maoists is a tough challenge, but Kiran opted for it voluntarily. After her induction into the force, she was given three choices. “But I preferred to come to Naxal-hit Bastar because tribals are innocents and development is not happening because of Maoist violence,” she said.
Read more of this in a report by Ritesh Mishra and S Kareemuddin in HT.....
