Fire Brigade recruitment: Police lathi-charge protesting women protest

Around 5,000 women showed up for MFB’s recruitment drive with 3,318 of them clearing the qualification round.

Mumbai: The Mumbai Fire Brigade’s (MFB) recruitment drive for women at Gopinath Munde ground in Dahisar West, turned ugly as around 350 women started protesting after they were disqualified, some for not meeting minimum height criteria (162 cms) and some for being late. Police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the protestors.

Police officers said that in spite of many warnings, some women tried to jump over the fence of the ground and created a ruckus due to which they had to resort to lathi charge. Some of the women shouted slogans against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the MFB, accusing them of being unfair and biased. (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

Around 5,000 women showed up for MFB’s recruitment drive with 3,318 of them clearing the qualification round. The protestors contented that their height was not measured properly and some even claimed that the process was biased. Fire brigade official said that they have followed the due process.

Twenty-two-year-old Soni Gaikwad from Kalwan in Nashik district trained for one year and reached along with her sister, to participate in the direct recruitment drive. On Friday night, the sisters waited outside the ground with no facility provided for drinking water or toilets. On Saturday, Gaikwad returned to Nashik teary-eyed, as she was turned down at the last moment for failing to meet the minimum height criteria for a placement in fire brigade.

“During the police recruitment drive, my height was recorded as 163 cms, but the MFB turned me away, claiming my height was less than 162 cms – the minimum requirement,” Gaikwad, a commerce graduate, said.

Gaikwad was not the only such case. More than 300 women, who were disqualified in the initial rounds, protested for eight hours outside the ground and also had to suffer lathi charge by Mumbai police.

According to Sudhir Kudalkar, senior police inspector of the MHB police station, many women staged a protest at the gate of the ground, urging fire brigade officials to measure their height again and allow them to participate in the recruitment drive.

“In the preliminary round, women with a height of 160cms were declared to be eligible. However, in the second round, the women were told they did not meet the criteria of minimum height of 162cms and turned away,” said Kudalkar.

Police officers said that in spite of many warnings, some women tried to jump over the fence of the ground and created a ruckus due to which they had to resort to lathi charge. Some of the women shouted slogans against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the MFB, accusing them of being unfair and biased.

A senior MFB officer, however, said, “The height requirement for the MFB is minimum 162 centimetres. Initially, at the main entrance, we had a height barricade of 160.50cm. Candidates having height above 160.50cm were allowed inside the ground and later doctors measured their exact height.”

He added that the candidates, whose height was below 162cm, were then disqualified and sent out. “It was these candidates, who were disqualified, that created a ruckus outside the gate and even tried to push few police officials, after which they were taken to police station,” he said.

“On further orders from senior officials, we re-examined the candidates, out of which 12-14 were found to meet the height requirement but they all agreed that they had come in late,” he added.

The protesting women, however, claimed that neither were they late nor was their height below the required mark. “In police recruitment, I was eligible but here for MFB, I am not. They did not even measure our height properly. They just made each one of us stand and within a second moved us aside saying our height was not up to the mark,” said Maya Uttam Kakade, who had travelled with her one-year-old child from Jalna in Marathwada region and waited for her turn all night outside the ground.

Rani Rathod from Dhule, too, had to return disappointed and with minor injuries, as she was among the protestors when the police lathi charged them.