Nod for recruitment of 600 SIs

'Government considering 33 per cent reservation for women'

The State government has given its nod for the recruitment of about 600 sub-inspectors and intends to reserve about 33 per cent of the posts for women as demanded by the various women’s organisations, said Home Minister K J George.

Speaking at the inauguration of a workshop on gender sensitisation, organised for the police personnel on Wednesday, the minister said cops were often subjected to harsh criticism, but the fact that there were only one lakh of them to provide security to 6.5 crore people in the State was ignored.

Amid growing demand by the top police brass for an additional 22,000 cops, the government approved the recruitment of 8,600 constables and their training is underway.

He said the government had taken initiative to recruit about 600 sub-inspectors.

“For the last four years, no sub-inspector has been recruited, while the youth aspire to become sub-inspectors. We can give one-time relaxation on certain parameters to backward communities who cannot meet the basic requirement for the post of sub-inspector. We have already issued a notification to start the recruitment process,” the minister said.

He said the government had increased the reservation for women in the police department from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.

“There is a demand for increasing the quota for women up to 33 per cent. The challenge is to train them. But we are planning to increase the number of women cops,” George said.

The workshop was aimed at training the police personnel on dealing with women and children, cases of child and women rights abuse, besides making them aware of the laws related to gender sensitivity.