After the recent incidents of fratricide and suicide, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has decided to start ‘Chaupal’ like get-together for its personnel to vent off their mental agony.

According to sources, on the lines of ‘Chaupal’, a popular meeting activity in the rural areas, get-together will be organised in all battalions. Senior officials will interact with the troopers to know their difficulties and other issues which can lead to mental stress.

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The fratricide incident occurred on Monday morning in Chhattisgarh. The Force also said in a statement that apparently due to some stress leading to sudden psychological disturbance, Constable Reetesh Ranjan lost his control and in a fit of rage opened fire on his colleagues. He was apprehended with his AK 47 rifle. CRPF Director General Kuldeep Singh has also ordered an inquiry into the incident and asked to submit a report with remedial measures.

There have been over 100 cases of suicides in the largest para- military force from 2020 till September this year.

Sanction of leave to the jawans, family issues and sometimes tough postings are the major reasons for the mental stress among the forces personnel, sources in the CRPF admitted.

To resolve these issues, the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked all Central Armed Police Forces to ensure that every personnel positively gets 100 days leave in a year but it is yet to be realised in practice, sources added.

The Union Home Ministry also asked the CAPFs to develop a software based transfer-posting system so that the troopers get a peace posting after a tenure of three years of ‘hard’ posting but it is also to be implemented in many forces, an official said.

This was not the first time that the CRPF has initiated such a programme to communicate with jawans to know the difficulties leading to mental stress, many other ways have already launched in the past too to de-stress them.

In January this year, the experts from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow undertook a study to find solutions to the occupational ‘stress and strain’ being faced by the CRPF personnel that leads to extreme instances like suicides and breakdown of family support system.

Regular Yoga classes, daily exercises, counselling and other remedial measures are there in the system but something more has to be done to weed out the mental stress and fatigue of the forces, a senior official in the CAPFs said.