Soon after he took charge of the Home Ministry with a lot of fanfare in 2019, the Union Home Minister had announced the 100-day leave policy for personnel of the CAPFs and Assam Rifles, to help them spend more time with their families. The decision was taken to address their emotional issues, and was hoped to reduce the number of suicides and fratricides within the forces.

According to the latest MHA data, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) saw a total of 2,245 personnel taking 100 days' leave in the period under review, with 570 personnel in 2020, which saw a steady decline to 71 in 2024.

The Border Security Force (BSF), with the largest number of jawans in terms of availing 100 days' leave, recorded the highest number of leave requests, with a total of 21,733 personnel taking extended leave in four years. But the force saw a sharp decline in leave requests in 2021, when 3,978 personnel availed the 100-day leave, which further fell to 3,295 in 2024.

As many as 1,472 Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel availed the leave over the four years, with an increasing trend from 211 in 2020 to 391 in 2023. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) saw 6,142 leave days, with the highest number in 2023, at 1,449. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has seen 8,838 personnel taking leave, with 2023 being the high point at 2,234 leave days.

Assam Rifles, which operates along the volatile Indo-Myanmar border and is deployed in Manipur as well, has seen 2,367 leave days, but saw a drastic drop in 2024, when only 91 personnel could avail the 100-days’ leave.

Thus, in total, 42,797 CAPFs and Assam Rifles personnel could consume their 100 days of leave between 2020 and 2024.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, in its recent report, has also raised the matter, noting that at present, 75 days of leave are provided to personnel who are posted in the field, with a proposal to increase this to 100 days. The Committee said the Ministry must speed up the rollout of the proposal at the earliest for the benefit of jawans.

The panel also said that it is not convinced with the Ministry's reply, and would like to be informed about the status of the formation of committees by zonal inspectors general of police (IGPs), the outcome of any reviews conducted by such committees, and the concrete steps that have been taken based on such reviews, to improve the living conditions in the CRPF camps that are functioning from rented accommodations.

Giving reasons for the fewer number of leaves availed by jawans, a senior CAPF official, on condition of anonymity, said there were several factors that make it difficult for seniors to allow jawans to go on extended leaves. “One among them is a mismatch between deployment requirements and available strength of the forces. There exists over one lakh combined vacancies in the paramilitary forces.”    

Sources said the MHA has now sought details of leave status of jawans from different CAPFs. It has also asked the forces for details about the leaves availed by jawans under three different heads: For those who have availed 75 days and above in a year; for those who got 60-74 days' leave; and for those who only got 45-59 days' leave.