Women's share in police a meagre 10%

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, July 7

The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), in its latest report on Data on Police Organisations (DoPO), has revealed that the police forces across India have grown by 32 per cent in the past 10 years, but the share of women is still 10.5 per cent against the desired 33 per cent.

Women Help Desks, envisioned as the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station, are available in only 41 per cent of the police stations across the country, the report said. The share of Scheduled Caste (SC) personnel increased marginally from 12.6 per cent in 2010 to 15.2 per cent in 2020, but that of Scheduled Tribes (STs) only inched up from 10.6 per cent in 2010 to 11.7 per cent in 2020.

The share of OBCs registered a stronger representation, up from 20.8 per cent in 2010 to 28.8 per cent in 2020.

“Governments at the Centre, state, and UT levels have accepted diversity in the police forces, both by policy and mandate,” it said, but went on to add that among the 24 states and UTs that had the provision of reservations for SC/STs, and OBCs, only Karnataka met its statutory quotas in 2020. Among the 17 states and UTs that had mandated 33 per cent of their police force to comprise women, none achieved the target, the report said.

During 2010-20, the number of police personnel increased by 32 per cent, up from 15.6 lakh to 20.7 lakh. But vacancies in constabulary and officer ranks remained stagnant, it said. Overall vacancies are highest in Bihar (41.8 per cent) and lowest in Uttarakhand (6.8 per cent).

The report showed 5,396 of the total 17,233 police stations did not have a single CCTV camera. The SC has directed all states and UTs to ensure that CCTV cameras were installed at all police stations. Tamil Nadu's women strength was 19.4 per cent, Bihar's 17.4 per cent and Gujarat's 16 per cent.

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