The Kerala Civil Defence is planning to hold massive awareness-cum-recruitment drives primarily targeting National Cadet Corps (NCC) units in educational institutions across Ernakulam with the aim of enlisting women and increasing their participation to 50% of the total strength of civil defence in the district.
The district at present has around 5,000 civil defence volunteers across 18 fire and rescue stations. Of the around 1,500 active volunteers, nearly one-third are women.
“There is an order by the State government and the Director General of the Fire and Rescue Services that 30% of civil defence volunteers should be women. We are aiming at a bigger goal of raising the participation of women to 50%,” said Binu Mitran, Ernakulam Divisional Warden, Civil Defence.
For the first time, a platoon of Civil Defence Force had lined up alongside the Police, Fire and Rescue Services, and the Excise for this year’s Independence Day parade in the district. This was done at the initiative of Regional Fire Officer R. Sidhakumar, who is in charge of the Kerala Civil Defence, and R. Harikumar, District Fire Officer and nodal officer for civil defence in Ernakulam.
“We wanted to present a platoon of women volunteers as well. But only six of them volunteered for it in place of the minimum of 27 members needed. We want to raise an all-women platoon by the Republic Day parade. This is another reason why we want to bring in service-oriented and disciplined women into the force and the NCC, for obvious reasons, serves as a perfect recruitment base,” said Mr. Mitran.
Women are to serve either as post wardens or deputy post wardens of the civil defence force in the district. They are also to serve either as captain or deputy captain for each of the five micro groups at the fire station level. But often it proves tough to find women to fill those positions.
“We want to rope in service-oriented women who are also willing to take up such leadership roles. Apart from NCC members, we are targeting women who are active in Kudumbashree and other disciplined sectors as well to expand the women base of the civil defence force,” said Mr. Mitran.
