At 14.6% Bengaluru women police officers tally not even half of target

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru:

A deep dive into the India Justice Report (IJR) 2022 revealed that Bengaluru has only 14.62 per cent of women police officers despite Karnataka topping the other states on delivery of justice in India. As per the report, there are only around 2,000 women officers of the total 17,000 police personnel for Bengaluru’s over two crore population.

Data from the City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB) shows that there are 17.64 per cent women Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCPs), 0.06 per cent women Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs), 6.45 per cent women Police Inspector (PIs), 19.49 per cent women Police Sub-Inspector (PSIs) and 1.16 per cent Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASIs) respectively.

The India Justice Report 2022 states that no state or union territory in India has reached the required quota for women police officers. "The Bureau of Police Research and Development branch goes through the statistics and sets a required target for police personnel. They make these decisions," a senior official from the CCRB, on the condition of anonymity, said. According to the official, Bengaluru's lack of officers in general and not just women police officials is the city’s main problem.

"We don’t have a proper police-to-population ratio at all. We are still struggling to reach it,” he said. The official further said that the authorities are more concerned about reaching the police-to-population ratio, and focus less on recruiting women police officers. When it comes to women’s representation in the police force, most states have their own specific quotas for how many women there should be in the police force.

For instance, six UTs and nine states have a target of 33 per cent reservation for women. "We need women officers for some specific works and only for that we currently have enough staff," he added. A city-based advocate said that the law prescribes, women police officers are the only officers who are to act for most women-related matters, especially for arresting and searching. The police units are content as long as there are one or two women police officers for these kinds of jobs.

Women activists in Bengaluru said that lack of female role models for girls to look up to is one of the reasons why there are fewer women police officials in Karnataka. According to activists this leads to girls taking up jobs that are considered feminine, such as teachers or nurses. Another possible reason for the lack of representation is the lack of facilities for female police officials such as sanitation which discourages girls from entering this field.

The IJR report 2022 ranked Karnataka as the top state of the country in delivering justice among middle and largesized states. Tamil Nadu and Telangana follow as the second and third-highest ranking states. The police force is one of the six corridors of justice in the country – the other three being the judiciary, State Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid, Prisons and CCTVs.