Only 10 per cent women in Central govt apparatus

A day after the Rajya Sabha discussed the condition of women in the country, the Centre has come out with a more dismal picture saying that they constitute only 10 per cent of the workforce in the government apparatus.

In a written reply in the Upper House of Parliament on Thursday, the Ministry of Personnel said there were 3.11 lakh women personnel working in the Central government out of 30.99 lakh. However, the 2009 figures, the latest, is an improvement from 7.53 per cent (2.91 lakh) in 2001 and 7.58 per cent (2.88 lakh) in 1991.

Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said the figures were culled from the Census of Central Government Employees in 2012.

While the number of women is increasing, an interesting point was the decrease in the total workforce during these years. By 2009, there was a decrease of 7.7 lakh in the number of employees compared to the 2001 figure of 38.76 lakh. In 1991, the number of employees was 38.13 lakh. In another written reply last month, the Union Home Ministry had admitted that the percentage of women in police is not up to the “desired level” of 33 per cent.

“Traditionally, women had not been inducted into the police force as it was thought that to maintain law and order, men were preferable.  It was only lately that women were specifically inducted into the police force to handle the presence of women agitators and crimes against women. Thus the proportion of women in police has lagged behind men,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said.