Chhattisgarh Polls: Women Commandos To Guard 35 booths In Bastar

The Chhattisgarh government will deploy solely women and transgender commandos to guard around 36 polling booths for the first time in the Naxal-affected Bastar division on election day, November 7. The women and trans-Bastar Fighters were selected and trained by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from a local tribal cohort, aiming to encourage the native population to work for peace and progress in their region.

The women commandos reportedly volunteered to be deployed at the polling booths as soon as security plans for the upcoming state assembly elections began. They will be manning 35 polling booths, details of which are yet to be disclosed; and one booth in Pakhanjore of Kanker district will be guarded solely by transgender officials.

The women Bastar Fighters were recruited in 2021 and underwent jungle warfare training for 18 months. Bastar range Inspector General of Police, Sundarraj Pattilingam, said that this is an important step in providing meaningful and challenging tasks to the women's police force, and will send a positive message on gender sensitisation to society.

There are 10.4 lakh women voters compared to 9.9 lakh men in the Bastar division.

Many firsts for Bastar 

Voting will be conducted for the first time in over 40 villages in the Naxal-controlled Chandmeta region of Bastar. Over 125 polling booths have been set up and 60 security force camps have been established, along with the construction of accessible roads over the last four years, to conduct the 2023 state assembly elections.

Booth Level Officer, Madanlal Nag, said that earlier, the voters had to travel around 7 kilometres to the nearby villages in order to cast their vote. Conducting elections was difficult in these villages due to the boycott of polling booths by Naxals as well as the geographical inaccessibility of the dense forests. 

But with the vigilance of the security forces, roads were built, schools, electricity, drinking water, and healthcare facilities were established, thus leaving the Naxalites to gradually move out of the areas.

Nag also said that he distributed voter slips to eligible voters in an attempt to spread awareness and enthusiasm for the upcoming elections. Now for the first time since independence, a polling booth has been set up in a recently built school in Chandmeta.

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