Over 200 Women CRPF Personnel March On 75th Republic Day Parade | Watch

More than 200 women personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the largest para-military force in the world marched down the Kartavya Path during the 75th Republic Day parade in the national capital. Constable Sosa Alpaben led the CRPF band consisting of 100 women personnel playing ‘Desh Ke Hum Hai Rakshak’.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has the distinction of raising one of the first women band contingents and is the largest para-military force in the world having 246 battalions with over 3.24 lakh personnel.

Later, the women contingent of the CRPF led by Assistant Commandant Megha Nair of the 234th Battalion based in Visakhapatnam participated in the parade.

During the 75th Republic Day celebrations,  an all-women tri-services contingent marched down the Kartavya Path, reflecting the country’s growing ‘Nari Shakti’ (women’s power) was on display.

In a first, the parade was heralded by over 100 women artists playing Indian musical instruments such as sankh, naadswaram and nagada instead of traditional military bands kickstarting the celebrations

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, several other Union ministers, the country’s top military brass, foreign diplomats and senior officials were among those who witnessed the impressive show that also included a gravity-defying fly-past by helicopters and planes, with even a dense fog failing to dampen the spirits of the spectators.

Soon after Murmu and Macron left from Kartavya Path in a traditional buggy, which made a comeback after 40 years, after the end of the parade, Modi, wearing a multi-coloured ‘bandhani’ print safa, mingled with the excited crowd as people clicked pictures and welcomed him with claps and slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.