Delhi, Union Territories to have 33 per cent women in police force

In a first concrete step towards bringing more women into the police, the Union Cabinet on Friday cleared a proposal to provide 33 per cent reservation for them in the force in Union Territories as well as in Delhi.

The Cabinet gave its “approval for making reservation of 33 percent for women, horizontally and in each category (SC/ST/OBC and others) in direct recruitment in non-gazetted posts from constables to sub-inspector in the police forces of all Union Territories, including Delhi Police,” a statement said.

A skewed police force with adequate gender representation is a major practical barrier in effective implementation of legislation intended for the protection of women, it said.

This decision will help in augmenting the representation of the women in the police forces of all UTs and Delhi Police to make the police more “gender sensitive”, it said. As per the statistics provided by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD, there are 1.05 lakh women out of a total of around 16.60 lakh personnel in police forces across the country as on January 1, 2014, which amounts to a meagre 6.3 per cent representation.

Though the number of women in the police force has increased over the years, the rate has been too low. While there was 84,479 women personnel in 2012, it rose to 97,518 in 2013. It rose to 1,05,325 in 2014. In the six Union Territories, there are only 7,116 women personnel with the majority coming from the Delhi Police (5413) and Chandigarh (1,017).

The figures at the top are more striking with just 15 women having Director General, Special DG or Additional DG rank out of 382 posts while there are 28 women in the rank of Inspector General out of 566.

Last month, Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary had informed Parliament that reporting of crimes against women is “likely to increase with greater representation of women” in police forces.