Prepare plan for recruiting women police: HC

The High Court of Karnataka recently expressed displeasure over the dwindling number of policewomen in the state.

Justice A N Venugopala Gowda, who is monitoring the recruitment of police personnel in the department, said though women constitute 50% of the population, the number of women in the force was not enough to deal with crimes against women. He said the government should come up with an action plan to increase the number of women in the force.

Taking the analysis report — ‘Data on Police Organisation in India,’ 2016 — on record, the court said the national average of female officers in the police force was 7.1%, but in Karnataka it is just around 6%.

Of the total strength of 70,934 of the force, only 4,354 are women. The court pointed out that the highest number of 606 women police personnel, including 502 constables, were posted in Bengaluru.

Compared to Delhi–NCR (National Capital Region) and Mumbai, which have more than 6,000 and 4,000 female personnel respectively, Bengaluru has a much lesser number.
The report said, Tamil Nadu had 33% reservation for women in the police force.

Though Karnataka had a reservation of 20%, the reality appears to be otherwise. Policewomen are mostly assigned for security duties rather than frontline responsibilities. The judge pointed to the lack of adequate rest-rooms for women in stations. He said surveys had shown that presence of women in police stations made it more comfortable to report incidents like eve-teasing, dowry related issues, molestation and sexual harassment.

With a meagre presence of women personnel, it will be difficult to prevent incidents of crime against women, like the one reported on New Year’s eve. Though the government counsel argued that reports in the media about crime against women on New Year’s eve was incorrect, the judge said damage had been done to the reputation of Brand Bengaluru. Justice Gowda asked the government to come up with an action plan for recruitment of women in the force.