Mumbai Fire Brigade to induct 30 women, train them for risky jobs.
The Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) will soon have women power to support its force. In a first in the state and a third in the country, the city’s fire service will induct as many as 30 women in its ranks.
However, the new recruits will not land in tough fire-fighting operations straightaway — they will be on control room duty till they can handle riskier jobs.
“We are in the process of inviting women candidates for our fire brigade,” Uday Tatkare, chief fire officer, MFB, said, adding the move follows the state government’s decision to have 33% reservation for women in the service sector. At present, the Chennai and Hyderabad fire brigades have women firefighters. “They will be required in rescue operations involving women casualties,” said Tatkare.
The MFB plans to take recruitment tips from the Mumbai police. “We are also planning to relax the norms for recruiting firemen. We will have to train the women firefighters once they are recruited, as getting trained women is not possible,” added Tatkare.
The idea of inducting women originated at a disaster management drive organised by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at Shivaji Park in Dadar earlier this year.
According to the disaster management team, men were awkward while dealing with women at the mock drill.
“We found out that while they lifted men easily, there was an amount of reservation when it came to women. That’s when we thought of having women in our fire brigade,’’ said Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner.
“Once we finish recruiting the women fire fighters, we plan to use the gender budget of the corporation to hold classes to help women get the qualification required for fire personnel.” Presently, there are 2,204 firemen, out of which 194 are fire officers.
MV Deshmukh, director, Maharashtra fire & emergency services, and fire adviser to the government, said, “It is a good decision to have women in the force. However, Maharashtra doesn’t have any infrastructure to produce trained fire-women like women personnel have police training centres. The state government is trying to get an advanced fire academy and we may include this aspect in it too.”
Dr Laxmi Lingam, head of department, Women Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said, “I appreciate the fact that another job avenue has been opened for women but the MFB should set a time frame for allowing women fire fighters for rescue operations.”
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