120 women hired: Bengaluru to get its first anti-riot women police

BENGALURU: Karnataka police are creating an all-women anti-riot squad trained as much in computer technology as in the martial arts.

The police department has recruited 120 women constables for the Karnataka State Reserve Police ( KSRP) after finding the force's lopsided gender ratio a major hindrance in controlling women protestors.Women police from the law and order wing are called on in such situations.KSRP , a special force for riot control, has no women in its 15 battalions, four of which are in Benglauru. Each battalion has about 1,000 constables.

The recruits are undergoing special training in the Koramangala KSRP division and will be deployed in Bengaluru and Belagavi after completion in December. “To strengthen the new KSRP women's wing, the department is giving them special training in karate and kung fu,“ said Bhaskar Rao, Additional Director General of Police, KSRP .

They are also being trained to use rifles, tear-gas crowds, use wireless communication devices and on computers, he said. The trigger for this all women squad was the garment workers protest and the Cauvery riots of last year. In April, thousands of garment workers, many of them women, rioted and blocked highways to protest against the Union government's proposed amendments to provident fund withdrawal norms. Visuals of male police lathi-charging at women protesters went viral and KSRP had to seek help from the women's wings of other paramilitary forces.

“Appointing women to the KSRP was overdue,“ said former state police chief ST Ramesh. “There should not be any differentiation in handling cases. Both men and women police should be able to handle both men and women related cases.“