In a departure from the past, the Indian Army is engaged in training with the paramilitary forces. A batch of Indian Army is currently receiving training in “public order and crowd management” at the Rapid Action Force Academy for Public Order (RAPO) before moving on for the United Nations assignments.
The Army and the paramilitary don’t mix their trainings.
RAPO is the first and only of its kind training institute in the field of riot control, crowd management and public order management in the country and there is a pact with 138 countries for exchange training programs.
Ever since its inception, the RAPO, which is a unit of the elite RAF, has been imparting training to States and UT police force including Delhi Police and other paramilitary forces, but never had Army personnel within its campus for training except for a brief program in 2019.
Beginning last week, a batch of Indian Army has been getting lessons on public order by the highly trained and qualified instructors of RAPO drawn from CRPF and RAF. The unit is to be deputed at Sudan as part of the UN peace keeping mission.
“The academy is being developed as the center of excellence to enhance the capability of the different Police force personnel in Public Order management and also for training, Research and Development on the concept,” said DIG RAPO Akhilesh Kumar Singh.
Police personnel from across the world which includes Central armed police forces of India, police force of various states in India including Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, are being trained at the academy in various subjects, with focus on public order.
“Since inception, the RAF Academy has trained 14318 men in uniform on various subjects which include crowd management, media management, human rights, legal aspects concerning police personnel in India,” said Akhilesh, who is also the recipient of President of India Medal for Distinguished Services in 2018.
The faculty at RAPO is highly experienced personnel of RAF/CRPF and have been pooled in with varied educational backgrounds to match the requirements of RAPO to optimise competency as well as international standards.
Myanmar police was the first foreign police batch to be trained in the RAF Academy in December 2019 followed by Zimbabwe police in March, 2020.
The academy also conducts pre induction training for MFPU and FFPU personnel for various UN missions abroad.
“Maintaining the highest traditions of CRPF, three courses are presently running at this institute,” said Akhilesh. Spread across 25 acres, the RAPO was inaugurated by former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in November 2013.
The Academy received formal approval by the MHA on November, 2019 with a sanctioned strength of 201 personnel with an officer of the rank of DIG as the head of the institution.