Meet Prakriti, ITBP’s first woman officer in combat role

In another first for women, 25-year-old Prakriti has been inducted as the first direct-entry combat officer in the border guarding force, ITBP.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force is the last of the CAPFs to induct women officers in combat roles after the government first allowed it to enroll them in 2016.

Prakriti, who goes by a single name, had cleared the UPSC exam for officers’ recruitment in CAPFs in the same year and in her first attempt.

“I always had a desire to don the uniform and serve the country. My father, who is in the Indian Air Force, has always been an inspiration for me. I opted for the ITBP as my first choice,” she told PTI.

“I read a news piece in March, 2016 that the government had for the first-time allowed women to serve as combat officers in the ITBP and then decided that I will opt for this force once I get selected,” Prakriti, who hails from Bihar’s Samastipur district, said.

She has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and is right now based in an ITBP unit in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh. She will soon join the Officers’ Training Academy of the force in Dehradun.

“She is expected to be commissioned as …read more