Meet Usha Kiran, the first woman CRPF officer to be part of COBRA
- by Gouri Shah
It was the longest 12 hours of her life. A chopper swooped into the remote Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Chhattisgarh to evacuate a grievously injured constable. The evening before, CRPF officer Usha Kiran was sipping tea with her colleagues when a loud blast broke the jungle silence. Attacks are common in the Naxal-infested area. Wounded and blinded by shrapnel from the blast, the constable asked, “Do you think I will ever see my daughter again?” words that would haunt Kiran for days. “That day, I remember being scared. It was my first day at the camp in Bastar,” she recalls.
Fear wasn’t something she had factored into her life plan. Both her grandfather and father were part of the CRPF. So, when Kiran announced her decision to join the forces, her parents were supportive. In 2016, she joined the CRPF’s 80th Battalion in Bastar, the first woman to be deployed to the area. Earlier this year, she went on to become the first woman CRPF officer to be part of COBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), a specialised unit of the CRPF that is proficient in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare. Kiran is also proud to be a role model for other young women looking to pursue a career in the forces. “If you have the power, then it becomes your obligation to encourage other women to be part of the forces… If you want to encourage and empower women, you just have to get out of their way. They will do the rest,” she adds.
Kiran’s personal mission is to forge a path for women in combat zones.
Read more in Vogue India’s November 2018 issue that hits stands on November 5, 2018
Photographed by: Bikramjit Bose. Styled by: Anaita Shroff Adajania
On Kareena: Bikini top, Melissa Odabash
Hair: Ajay Kaloya (Ranbir); Priyanka Borkar (Alia); Yianni Tsapatori/ Faze Management (Kareena). Makeup: Mickey Contractor (Kareena); Hemant Naik (Ranbir); Puneet B Saini (Alia). Production: Imran Khatri Productions; Divya Jagwani. Photographer’s assistants: Vikas Gotra (Ranbir). Assistant stylists: Priyanka Kapadia; Fabio Immediato; Aradhana Baruah. Editorial assistant: Janine Dubash
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