Dismal representation of women in CBI, NIA: Police Data

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) may be the country's premier investigating agencies but a strong glass ceiling appears to be in place in these institutions where the number of women personnel are at a dismal low.

Overall, there is an increase in the number of women personnel -- 2.15 lakh women out of 20.91 lakh personnel who are in the force. The number of women increased by 16.05 per cent, but they are now 10.30 per cent of the force, way behind the target of 33 per cent set by the Centre.

The NIA has just 37 women in its ranks, which is just 4.64 per cent of the total strength of 796, while the CBI has 475 in its various wings, which is 7.96 per cent of 5,964, as on January 1, 2020, according to the Data of Police Organisations released on Tuesday.

In the NIA, the top most rank a woman occupies is that of a Deputy Inspector General (DIG). Two out of nine DIGs in the agency are women, while not one out of four Inspectors General is a woman.

It has eight women out of 223 Constables and three out of 127 Head Constables. There are one woman Inspector and five women Sub Inspectors but not a single woman Assistant Sub Inspector, the report prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) said.

When it comes to the CBI, the top ranking woman -- one out of 19 -- is an Inspector General officer. One out of 10 DIGs is also a woman, while there are 29 women among the 656 Inspectors.

Among women in the CBI, six (out of 85) are Superintendents of Police, three (out of 76) are Deputy SPs, 29 (out of 656) are Inspectors, while 12 (out of 389) are ASIs. Out of 1,779 Constables, 393 are women.

In its earlier reports, the BPRD had said that there is a tendency to engage women police only in situations like security checks and other specialised duties relating to women, but unless they are assigned mainstream duties in the police stations, there would not be adequate impact on the community. Senior women police officials had also earlier said in a survey in 2014 that they were given less important posts “just because they are women”.

An analysis of the report also showed that there were just 207 personnel from the Scheduled Castes at the ranks of Sub Inspector and below in the CBI, 80 from the Scheduled Castes and 171 from the Other Backward Classes (OBC). In the NIA, there are just 39 Scheduled Caste personnel, 27 Scheduled Tribe personnel and 119 OBCs.

In the state police forces, there are 3.01 lakh personnel (from Constable to DySP) from the Scheduled Castes, 2.42 lakh from the Scheduled Tribes and 5.19 lakh from the OBCs.

The highest quota for SCs is 25 per cent in Punjab, followed by 22 per cent each in Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. For the STs, the highest quota is in Nagaland where it is 100 per cent, followed by 80 per cent in Meghalaya. The highest reservation for OBCs is 50 per cent in Tamil Nadu, followed by 43 per cent in Sikkim, according to the BPRD.