Home ministry to push states for hiring more women in police

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has decided to devote an entire session on how to combat crimes against women during the upcoming Chief Ministers’ conference on June 5.

The decision to devote such time has been prompted by rising crimes against women, especially the recent rape cases in Delhi that triggered a series of protests and public outrage.

Crime against women and states’ preparedness to deal with such cases is a specific agenda item listed for discussions. The Home Ministry will also ask all state governments to aim for 30% reservation for women in their respective police forces and an assessment of the present percentage of representation will be done, a ministry official said.

According a count done by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) as on January 1, 2012, there are only 84,479 women cops in India against a total police strength of 15.85 lakh, which translates into a women representation percentage of just about 5%.

What makes matters far worse is that there are very few women at the top ranks of the force with BPR&D claiming that 74,885 out of the 84,479 women cops in the country are in the ranks of constables and head constables and just 16 women cops are in the ranks of Director General of Police or Special DG, while there are just 24 in the ranks of an Inspector General of Police in the entire country. “States will be stressed that they need far higher proportion of women cops in their ranks to combat crimes against women and ensure police show due sensitivity while handling such cases,” a Home Ministry official said.

The highest number of women cops are in Maharashtra (20,062) followed by Tamil Nadu (10,118) and Delhi (5,356). The proportion is extremely skewed in states like Uttar Pradesh which has just 2,586 women cops out of its strength of 1.73 lakh cops while Madhya Pradesh police has just 3,010 women cops among its strength of 76,000 cops.

MHA has also decided to advise states to promptly register FIRs in cases of crimes against women and hold quick trials.

Another prominent issue on the agenda is communal harmony with emphasis on repeated cases of strife reported last year from UP, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.