NEW DELHI: After raising an exclusive women’s battalion 25 years ago, the CRPF has now set up the world’s first all-women ‘paramilitary’ pipe band.
The 22-member band will get its ceremonial colours on April 9 during the ‘Valour Day’ celebrations of the paramilitary force. The band will be led by a commander, called the ‘Major of Pipes’, sub-inspector Darshana Kumari. Out of the 22 band players, 12 will play the pipes while five will be on the drums and the rest will play other musical instruments.
The women’s band will not only play martial and ceremonial tunes at traditional events of the force but would also be sent to boost the morale of troops at their United Nations (UN) mandated duty locations.
The band, on its debut, is expected to play the national anthem, the CRPF song ‘CRPF sada ajay, Bharat mata ki jai’ and ‘Kadam kadam badhaye jaa’. The CRPF, like other central forces and state police departments, also has its own male band.
The force is also credited with raising the first women’s battalion in central police forces way back in 1986. The force presently has three operational women’s battalions with headquarters in the national capital, Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Ajmer in Rajasthan.
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