Women Cops Make Only 5.33 Percent Of Indian Police, One For 15,000 People

By siliconindia | Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 12:35 Hrs

Justice Verma's report says, "It is especially important that the number of female police personnel on patrol and on duty in police stations is increased; so that females feel comfortable in complaining of sexual harassment or threats of a sexual nature to any member of the police." The view was echoed by a parliamentary committee on "empowerment of women'' that recommended that representation of women should be increased to 33 percent.

It is equally discouraging when it comes to presence of women in central forces, which has only 15,071 personnel. The highest 5,414 or 35.9 percent are with Central Reserve Police Force followed by 4,815 or 31.9 percent in Central Industrial Security Force. And there are 1,517 in Border Security Force and 1,289 in Railway Protection Force. Sashastra Seema Bal has 1,126 women while Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Assam Rifles have 780 and 89 respectively. The lowest ratio of women is in the National Security Guard with 41.

On the brighter side, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Rajasthan and Odisha, have introduced 30 percent reservation or more to increase the proportion of women personnel. While Tamil Nadu has a woman police station in every sub-division, Himachal Pradesh has recently set up an all-women inter-reserve battalion. Bihar has decided to provide 35 percent reservation.