(This story originally appeared in on May 29, 2019)

BENGALURU: Women police and paramilitary personnel in India will finally have customised body protection gear — or full body protector (FBP). All these years they wore suits designed for men.In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced at the Indian Science Congress that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was working on the FBP, which was being tested. TOI has now learnt that the DRDO is ready to transfer this technology to the industries for mass production.Developed by the Defence Institute Of Physiology & Allied Science (DIPAS), the FBP is a personal protective ensemble used by law-protecting personnel against brick batting, cane, knife, acid attacks and projectiles encountered in a riot situation and other violent encounters.Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman IPS officer, said the timing of the new gear could not have been better. “Today, there are more women on the forefront everywhere — in the BSF, Assam Rifles, and even the army,” she said. “Besides, all the state police forces have more women now, with several of them being promoted to high ranks. The timing is perfect and I am glad they thought of it and worked it out so quickly.”The FBP consists of a modular structure with different parts — front and back shields, shoulder pads, side shield, arm guards (lower and upper) and leg protectors (upper and lower) — and the DRDO is open to granting five licences for manufacturing of the product.“Female troops are frequently deployed for riot control and various law and order duties,” the DRDO said in a statement. “At present full body protector available in the forces is not designed for female anthropometry. Initially, female troops wore the male FBP, which is ill-fitting and hindered their mobility and was a glaring problem faced by the female troops.”Pointing out that there are many problems in the existing FBP — improper sizing, unergonomic design, poor manoeuvrability, exposed sensitive regions and not user friendly — the DRDO said the new FBP was based on thorough research.“DIPAS generated an anthropometric database of female troops with the aim to provide a well-suited FBP,” the DRDO said. “This was a first of a kind study specifically keeping in mind the lacunae that exists with regard to anthropometric data of female troops for design and development of a new female full body protector.”The unique design allows adjustability of all parts as per the physique of the user. The FBP can withstand various threats as it is anti-stab, anti-puncture, anti-impact and fire and acid resistant.One source in DRDO said that the forces could not import such FBPs because women in the West are physically different from those in the sub-continent and nobody in the sub-continent had such products.