Women constitute only 5.33 per cent of police forces in India

The country has just 5.33 per cent women in police forces despite growing demands for more representation in law enforcement agencies.

According to Home Ministry statistics, out of 15,85,117 personnel working in state police forces, only 84,479 or just 5.33 per cent are women.

Besides, there are just 499 all-women police stations in the country out of a total 15,000 stations.

The demand for more women in police forces has been growing since the gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi on December 16. There were also 2,28,650 incidents of crime against women reported in 2011, of which 24,206 were of rape.

Uttar Pradesh has 2,586 women police personnel which is just 1.49 per cent of the total 1,73,341 personnel while Andhra Pradesh has 2,031 policewomen, just 2.27 per cent of its total 89,325 police personnel.

There are 1,485 policewomen (2.18 per cent) in Bihar out of the total 67,964 police personnel. Madhya Pradesh, where the highest number of rapes took place in 2011, there are 3,010 policewomen (3.93 per cent) out of the 76,506 personnel.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Chandigarh have relatively better representation of women in their police forces.

Out of the 1,34,696 police personnel in Maharashtra, 20,062 or 14.89 per cent are women while in Tamil Nadu out of the 95,745 police personnel, 10,118 (10.57 per cent) are women and in Chandigarh, 13.48 per cent or 985 are policewomen out of the 7,308 police personnel.

There are 5,356 policewomen (7.13 per cent) in Delhi out of 75,169 police personnel.