Dismal show: Only 6% women in police force

Growing crimes against women and safety issues may be a top concern in India, but when it comes to policing, women form only 6.11 per cent of the entire force, a far cry from the 33-per-cent target set by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2009 and reinforced in 2013.

According to a report – “Rough Roads to Equality: Women Police in South Asia 2015” – by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), India, Bangladesh and Pakistan continue with the practice of ‘colonial policing’ in which women had little place.

These three countries continue to be governed by the Police Act of 1861, which was put in place after the uprising of 1857 spurred the British to create a highly hierarchical and militaristic police force based on the Irish constabulary model.

“Provisions for women in police are entirely absent from the 1861 legislation… While democracy is fully embedded, there has been no systemic fundamental reform of the police in independent India,” said the report, adding that at the national average of 6 per cent, women are only finding some subordinated space in the establishment.

Releasing the report on Wednesday, Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, said, “The Centre is determined to ensure 33 per cent representation for women in the police force in all the Union Territories.”

The report found that women in policing fare poorly in terms of representation in India – 6.11 per cent; Bangladesh – 4.6 per cent; Maldives – 7.4 per cent; Pakistan – 0.9 per cent (as of 2014-2015).

It noted that Kerala was the first State to have inducted a woman into the then Travancore Royal Police in 1933.

But, it was not until 1972 that the first woman was appointed to the Indian Police Service.

With violence against women on the rise , coupled with little access to remedies, the need for more women in policing has been recognised by successive governments, which felt that apart from greater diversity, more women can improve gender-sensitivity and quality of response to crimes against women.

Recruitment, at best, has been “sporadic” and the pace of inducting women remains “glacial,” said the report, adding that Chandigarh (14.16 per cent), Tamil Nadu (12.42 per cent) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (11.27 per cent) recorded the highest representation of women police.

“If you disaggregate police work, the ‘muscularity’ requirement is only a thin sliver of total work. Management, administration, investigation, going to court, forensics, etc, are all non-physical work. Visibility is very important – depriving women of an economic opportunity. That is discrimination,” said Maja Daruwala, Director, CHRI, in a statement.

Aruna M Bahuguna (Andhra Cadre), IPS, Director of the National Police Academy, listed the personal challenges she faced while managing work, home and raising children.

“At the time there was some maternity leave, no childcare leave and always the guilt that I was focusing on career at the cost of children.”

This, however, did not stop her from serving in insurgency areas and conflict zones.

She urged the senior police leadership to be sensitive to women during the trying times of child-bearing and child-rearing. 

COMMENT NOW