The recent death of 10 army soldiers fighting at Siachen, the highest battleground in the world, has once again brought the focus on the equipment provided to the jawans.
Soldiers of the Indian army are reportedly being forced to buy their own boots because those issued to them are of poor quality. Their rifles are sometimes outdated and tenders to replace them have been cancelled repeatedly.
But most of all, they lack proper bulletproof vests.
A petition started by Advocate Sagina Walyat on Change.org, addressed the Home and Defence Minister, is demanding adequate bulletproof vests for the army and the police forces.
Our army had asked for lightweight bulletproof armour 10 years back and they still don’t have it. Our policemen and soldiers are dying because they don’t have bulletproof jackets. The Defence Minister asked for 50,000 emergency jackets to be procured 6 months back. The army still hasn’t got them. If they had, we might not have lost our brave soldiers who were martyred in Mumbai, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and many more before.Change.org petition
Most of the time, make-do cricket helmets and pads are used by police and SWAT teams, the petition says.
Let us try and give our soldiers the best protection possible.Change.org petition
The petition has already gathered 99,000 signatures and still needs 50,000 more.
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