Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Include more women in the police force' that was published in Newsband

Include more women in the police force

In a survey made in 2011 it was found that of the 16.6 lakh police personnel in India at the constabulary level, only 93,887 were women. India’s first policewoman donned her uniform in Travancore in 1933.

The advantage of having women in the police force is that the very presence of women can create an environment for women and those from weaker sections of society to access police stations with less diffidence and difficulty than would otherwise have been the case. The government should come up with policy to have 33% women in the Indian police force. These women must get the training, support and confidence needed to put them on a par in every sense with their male counterparts.

There should be no hesitation in women being considered for front-line postings at cutting edge levels based on their competence and experience. Resource centres for mentoring, creating awareness about opportunities and prospects, and helping with career planning and training and coping with workplace challenges should be made available to women. They should be made to realize their full potential.

 The contemporary needs of policing also demand the integrating of women in the force. Inclusion of women in the police force will have a direct effect on the incidents of crime against women citizenry. We witness less incidents of reporting due to fear and apprehensions by the female victims; when there is an increase in the women in the force more victims will come forward.

Considering the recent set of crimes and rape cases in which cops are also held responsible, steps like these can curtail such crimes in future. It would be wise on the part of the government to give martial art trainings to girl children at school level itself since nowadays most of the rape victims are below the age of 15. The government must also try to create an awareness among people in the society in order to bridge this gender disparity.

Girls should and must be encouraged to take up police professions from school days. There should be a gender sensitive comprehensive coursework along with strong NCC training that would bring faith and belief in our girls. More number of women should be inducted to services and each police post must have two or more woman police personnel. Such steps can fetch more justice for women.