“Civilians live only for themselves, but the military lives for the entire country,” Ritu says.

The women guards have been welcomed by villagers. In 1988, India built an electric fence 500 meters inside its border to keep out Pakistani infiltrators. For the past 20 years, local women would not cross the fence to their fields as the BSF men would have to frisk them. Now with female guards, they can. The farmers, too, are happy.

“Our women folk can work in the fields now. So the labor costs have come down. What we used to spend earlier on hiring farm labor, we can now spend on our children,” says farmer Banta Singh.

Over 8,000 women applied to join the BSF, of which only 600 have been selected. Sandeep Bamrah is nearing the end of her training, and is already excited about the challenging assignment ahead.

“In the beginning we used to be scared of the weapons, but we’ve been trained in all sorts of weapons and firearms .When we started off, we found the rifle too heavy. Some of the girls couldn’t even lift it, but after practicing with it regularly all of us have performed well,” Sandeep says.

The women are already being seen as role models, which will go a long way in changing attitudes in India towards what jobs women are capable of doing.

“This is a very important event for the Border Security Force. The girls who have been recruited and trained are as good as the boys,” believes inspector General Himmat Singh.