[Reader-list] 1st female battalion of Indian Army goes pregnant in held Kashmir

[Khurram Parvez]

http://dailymailnews.com/0110/09/FrontPage/FrontPage1.htm

 

DAILY MAIL

 

1st female battalion of Indian Army goes
pregnant in held Kashmir
 

— Development raises panic amongst Indian Army, Government
—Army Chief seeks help from Home Minister Chidambaram after soared ties with
Defence Minister —Home Affairs Ministry purchases bulk of contraceptive
manufacturing machines —Condom making machines being installed at battalion
headquarters across border areas —Both male, female soldiers developing serious
diseases due to unsafe sex practices —Special team of IAMC gynecologists rushes
to Military hospitals in Kashmir region to handle situation

From Christina Palmer & Ajay Mehta in New Delhi 

and Nandita Bhat in Udhampur


New Delhi- The first battalion of Indian army that
actually comprises sex workers, recruited from relight areas across India with
the help of RAW and posted as Border Guards in the occupied Kashmir by Indian
army in September 2009, with aims to provide “fun” to soldiers in the area who
were constantly committing suicide, is now reported to be suffering from some
serious medical problems due to unsafe sexual activities while at least 63 out
of the total 178 female “soldiers”, posted under Northern Command in September
last, are reported t have been tested positive in the pregnancy tests, carried
out at military hospitals while many male soldiers have also been diagnosed
with serious sex related diseases, reveal the investigations of The Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that the problem started occurring when
in the month of December a large number of female “soldiers” started reporting
SIQ (Sick-In-Quarter) at different formations with complaints of minute illness
like vomiting and headaches. However, as the number of complaints in this
direction started rising dramatically, the patients were referred to Military Hospital
at Badamibagh cantonment in Srinagar.
At Srinagar’s Military Hospital,
after different tests, it was found that the female soldiers sent there from
different formations were mostly suffering from no disease but were found to
pregnant while a few others were treated for different unsafe-sex related minor
diseases. Captain Dr. Jyoti (name changes on source’s request) of the IAMC
(Indian Army Medical Corps), posted at the Military Hospital
told The Daily Mail that at least 63 female soldiers, sent to the base hospital
from different field units were tested positive in the pregnancy tests. “It was
something unusual that these women were found 8 to 10 weeks with pregnancy
while they were not sent on leave since their posting some 12 to 14 weeks back.
Similarly some other 38 were found having some minor diseases but these were
sex related diseases that occur normally due to unsafe sexual activities and
thus we reported the matter to the commandant of the hospital who forwarded the
same to the high command”, asserted Dr. Jyoti.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the situation rang alarm bells in the
Eastern Command’s headquarters where an emergency meeting was held which, apart
from others, was attended by Major General Harinder Singh, Commandant of the
IAMC of Northern Command. Since the matter was of very serious nature, it was
decided in the meeting that was held under the command of the Commander of the
14th corps to bring the matter to the notice of the Army Headquarters at New Delhi. The News
arrived at Army Headquarters at New Delhi as a bomb because the headquarter was
already suffering from a high profile controversy of land scams and the rift
between Army Chief and Commander Eastern Command over the issue was at the peak
and Defence Minister was in no mood to give any support to Army Chief Deepak
Kapoor.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that since the project of posting sex
workers in the disguise of female soldiers in Kashmir was initiated by the
orders of General Deepak Kapoor without seeking any formal approval from the
Defence Minister, the news cam as a big shock as General Kapoor was already at
odds with the Defence Minister A.K Antony over the issue of corruption in sale
of army lands. Our sources reveal that upon this, Army Chief held a classified
meeting with his confidants and aides and also invited Director General of
Armed Forces Medical Services Lt. General N.K Parmar. In the meeting, it was
decided to dash a team of gynecologists from Delhi to Northern Command to tackle the
situation on emergency, yet confidential basis. Upon this, a team of 9
gynecologists from IAMC was sent to Northern Command. The team performed the
abortions upon some 56 “soldiers while rest of the 7 were shifted to
Udhampur-based military hospital as their ‘cases’ were reported to be bit
complicated and required some serious surgeries. The said team of Army
Gynecologists, headed by Lt. Colonel. Bharti Sharma, not only treated the
patients but also gave them tips to follow the safe sex practices. In the
meanwhile, several male soldiers from the same region were also reported SIQ
with sex related diseases.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that as the situation started worsening, the
Army Chief General Kapoor contacted Lt. General. Raj Kumar Karwal, who was the
head of the committee which recommended the posting of undercover sex workers
in Kashmir to meet the natural requirements of
the sex starving male soldiers. Sources reveal that General Karwal told General
Kapoor that while following his committee’s recommendations, the
recommendations, regarding the provision of safe sex devices like the condoms
and educating the soldiers about safe sex practices were not followed at all as
the committee had recommended that prior to the posting of sex workers amongst
the ranks of soldiers, the soldiers must be provided with precautionary
measures and should be given tips regarding the safe sex practices.

Sources revealed that upon this, General Kapoor, who had hopes of a support
from Defence Minister Antony in this matter, decided to approach the Home
Affairs Minister P Chidambaram. Upon contacting, Chidambaram promised general
Kapoor of his all out support.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that hiding behind the notion of helping the
Paramilitary forces, Chidambaram ordered the Home Affairs Ministry to procure
condom making machines to be given to military and paramilitary authorities for
installing at remote areas of deployment, particularly along the borders.
According to a report, released by Indian’s State news agency Press Trust of
India (PTI), Indian Government is procuring more than 1,000 units of condom
vending machines to promote safe sex practices among its military and
para-military deployed in far flung areas. 



The machines, the PTI reports further, for the men of forces like CRPF, CISF,
SSB, ITBP, BSF and NSG will be installed at the battalion and sector
headquarters of the forces, especially along the borders.

"A total of 1,080 machines are being procured by the Home
Ministry. The idea is to promote safe sex practices amongst the soldier who are
deployed at far off places for long durations," PTI reports, quoting a
senior para-military officer. 



The PTI further reports that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has been
appointed as nodal agency by the Home Ministry for procurement of these machines
as well as all health related purchase and activities. 

“The condoms, to be provided through these machines, have been
procured from different companies and would be provided to the soldiers free of
cost but on rationing basis every month,” concludes the PTI report.

The Daily Mail’s finding further indicate that the soldier of Indian army,
posted in Indian Occupied Kashmir and other border areas of India often indulge
into unsafe sexual activities including rapes and prostitution. While the
complaints of rapes and gang rapes by Indian soldiers are fairly common in Kashmir valley, the border natives other regions are also
constant victims of brutal forced rapes of women by the frustrating Indian
soldiers. The female villagers along the either side of Indo-Myanmar border,
Indo-Bangladesh border and Indo- Nepal border are often sexually assaulted by
Indian soldiers while visiting the prostitution dens and opting for paid, yet
unsafe sex is a common practice throughout the Indian Army and at many
garrisons, Indian Army High Command has taken stringent measures to curb
prostitution and have even displayed sign suggesting a ban on prostitution in
the area. However the number of such incident had reached alarming limits and
the Indian soldiers got into a severe trauma of sexual and mental frustration
due to continuous bans on different recreational facilities by the top
authorities and thus they started indulging into suicide practices and killing
the colleagues as well. The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that adding to the
miseries of soldiers in Kashmir, the Indian
Army announced imposing a ban on use of mobile phones by soldiers, posted in
the Occupied valley. These findings indicate that senior medical officers of
the Indian armed forces believe that just engaging the sex workers under the
grab of female soldiers was not enough to rid the soldiers of frustration and
mental stress but the use of mobile phone by troops was also a permanent source
of stress and strain for the soldiers, deployed in the occupied valley.

“The problem is not the stress in the encounter, the problem is the cell phone
and that should be banned,’’ said Lt-General Dipankar Ganguly, speaking on the
occasion of the 246th anniversary of the Army Medical Corps 

The top General said that cell phones allowed the soldiers to maintain regular
contact with their families and get updated on their problems, which led to
higher levels of stress among them. 

Armed Forces Medical Services Director General Lt-Gen N K Parmar, in his
observation, said that the armed forces had taken a number of steps to tackle
stress-related issues among the troops.

But, as reported earlier, armed forces continue to grapple with stress-related
deaths in the shape of suicide and `fragging’ (to kill a fellow soldiers)
cases. In 2008, for instance, there were 151 suicide and four `fragging’ cases
in the three Services. 

While prolonged deployment in operations in Indian occupied part of J&K and
North-East are exacting a heavy toll on the physical endurance and mental
health of soldiers, they also undergo tremendous stress for not being able to
take care of the problems facing their families back home. The problems could
range from property disputes and harassment by anti-social elements to
financial and marital problems. 

Soldiers, of course, also have to grapple with paltry salaries, lack of basic
amenities, ineffectual leadership, humiliation at the hands of their officers,
and the constant fear of being accused of human rights violations.

The Daily Mail’s findings further reveal that not just the soldier but a number
of Indian Army Officers are working in the institution against their wills but
as a bonded labour. These findings indicate that since the Officers sign a bond
while joining the army under which they have to pay a huge amount of money to
army in case of quitting the job, they do not dare to do so due to poor
financial conditions but work with a dead heart after being posted to duties at
stations like Kashmir. These findings indicate that even young female
commissioned officers are no exception in this direction. These findings
indicate that a female officer of the Indian Army committed suicide by shooting
herself in Udhampur, headquarter of the army's Northern Command, a couple of
years back as she was "dissatisfied and unhappy with her job". 

According to police and army officials in Udhampur, about 65
km north of Jammu,
the 25-year-old officer Lt. Sushmita Chakravorty of 5071 ASC Battalion went to
a guest house near her official quarters on Thursday evening and asked the
sentry there for his rifle "as she wanted to get her photo with
that". 

The unsuspecting sentry handed his weapon and in moments Lt.
Chakravorty shot herself with it. She was shifted to the army hospital where
she was declared brought dead. 

This was the first incident of its kind in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir of a female army officer committing suicide. 

The officer's mother Sadhana Chakravorty told media persons in
Udhampur that Lt. Chakravorty had "unwillingly joined the army about 10
months ago". 

Lt. Chakravorty had returned from two months leave. "I
came with her as she was feeling very low," her mother said. 

Sadhana told reporters that her daughter had become very short
tempered soon after joining army and being posted in Kashmir
"disillusioned with her present job". She wanted to quit the army but
could not do so as "she had to pay the bond money to the army". 

"We had told her that the money could be arranged by
selling off the house in Bhopal,"
Sadhana said. But Lt. Chakravorty did not agree to it "because she was
concerned about her younger brother too who had just passed Class 12." 

The Daily Mail’s finding that the female members of the Indian Army have always
been serving under very miserable conditions as they are often sexually
harassed and abused by seniors at workplaces “in the line of duty.” These
findings indicate that in most of the cases the female officers of the Indian
army remain silent over the sexual assaults and sexual abuses by seniors
because even if they report so, instead getting justice, they are always
victimized even loose jobs.

The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that just in July 2009, an army
court martial ordered “dismissal” of a woman officer Captain Poonam Kaur, who a
year back had accused her seniors of sexually harassing her, but her
allegations were found false.

Kaur , in 2008 alleged that three officers of her unit, the
Army Supply Corps (ASC) in Kalka, Haryana had physically and sexually harassed
her and confined her illegally when she resisted their advances.

A court of inquiry (COI) had then been ordered to investigate
the allegations of physical and mental harassment leveled by Capt Kaur against
her superior officers.

She had accused three of her seniors, including her commanding
officer, the unit’s second-in-command and adjutant, a Colonel, Lt Col and a
Major rank officer respectively, of harassing her over the past few months.

However, in an immediate reaction then, the army had denied
the charges.

“The court martial proceedings, which
were initiated, against Capt Kaur, in its order at Patiala, have ordered her
dismissal from service, which will be subject to confirmation by the Western
Command chief, a process which may take two months,” was the official
announcement to conclude.