New Delhi, January 18: Growing up in Midnapore in West Bengal, Tanushree Singha liked to climb trees and play with guns. “I always dreamt of an adventurous life,” she reminiscences. Today as a constable with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), she is living her dream.

Singha is part of the 125-member all-women team to be sent on a United Nations peace keeping mission to Liberia on the western coast of Africa. All the members of the team are from RAF, which is a specialised wing of CRPF.

“We are the first all-women contingent in the world to go on a peace mission,” says a proud Vijayalakshmi from Tamil Nadu. “There was this show on TV called Udaan, based on Kiran Bedi’s life. I loved that show. I did not know you could not wear an officer’s badge directly,” laughs Meera Devi, who joined the force in 1986. Meera has served in Srinagar, the North east, and even Sri Lanka.

These women will be away from their families for long. But that doesn’t perturbs them. Shirley ES, whose husband works as a refrigerator mechanic says, “My husband is used to my being not at home. It’s just that I am going a little farther this time.” Some, however, are less pragmatic. Y. Manjuri Devi from Manipur who joined the force in 2000 is a bit worried about her three-year-old son. “But my in-laws will take care of him,” she adds. “I will be missing my brother,” says Purnima Deka, adding, “Don’t know how long letters will take to reach or if we’ll have internet facility over there.”

The CRPF personnel would be involved in maintaining law and order in the troubled region. “We will be stationed at Monnrovia, the capital,” says Commandent Seema Dhundia who will be leading the team. The initial mandate is for six months, which may be extended if the United Nations think so.

Liberia, which has a 20-year-long history of ethnic conflict, has recently embraced democracy and the country has an elected women president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

So why an all women team? “Women are seen to be more impartial and have a healing touch. People find it easier to believe them. And very significantly, they would be more sensitive to human rights,” says Jyoti Krishan Dutt, Director General of the CRPF. “We might also turn out to be trend setters and other nations might follow our example and send all women teams,” says Dhundia. The unit will be fully self-sufficient and will be armed with INSAS rifles, LMGs, bullet proof vehicles, night vision devices, as well as the riot control vehicle Vajra. “These are already being shipped to Liberia and will be in place by the time the unit starts work in the first week of February,” says Dutt.