Women to get space in fire force

The municipal body's plans to induct women in the fire brigade are now taking shape.

The municipal body's plans to induct women in the fire brigade are now taking shape.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is in the process of finalising a policy that will help them reserve a certain percentage of posts in the fire brigade department for women.

According to civic officials, the reservation could be between 10 and 30 per cent and the recruitment can begin as early as the next three months, after the policy is approved by Municipal Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya.

The idea was backed by Kshatriya and Mayor Shraddha Jadhav during an annual function at the fire brigade headquarters in Byculla early this year.

"By the end of this year, the BMC will fill 120 vacant posts in the department and the reservation will be implemented from then. The first batch of women fire fighters will be recruited with them," said an official from the fire brigade department.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said the administration was keen on recruiting women in the fire department and was working towards it.

Officials from the department said that the nature of work these recruits will be doing, will need to be outlined and parameters such as their impact on the department and their pattern of working will have to be defined in the policy.

"They can start with manning control rooms of the fire stations, they can be assigned to monitor the mobile control vans and batches of the these women can be trained for some time and then they can be assigned full-fledged roles in rescue operations," said a senior official from the fire brigade department.

Fire brigades in Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad have had women fire fighters since 2003.