The ‘Mardanis’ of Nanjangud

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Mysuru: When women cops hit the streets to patrol and check vehicles, do men have anything to fear?

They obviously do as women’s teams from eight police stations in Nanjangud in Mysuru, armed with lathis and .303 rifles did their job briskly on the highway besides guarding scores of villages between 11 pm and 6 am Wednesday night.

This was no hastily put together act; the idea was mooted by probationary Deputy Superintendent of Police of Nanjangud Sub-Division, Nikita and was implemented by DSP Govindaraju in consultation with Superintendent of Police(SP) Chetan. Ten to fifteen per cent of the police force in the district are women and they have been insisting that they be assigned duties which their male counterparts perform.

Women cops are usually given lighter tasks at police stations such as sentry duty and maintenance of files and not male-dominated jobs like night patrol and vehicle checks.

It all changed with the women reaching their positions by 11 pm. The vehicle drivers were no doubt surprised to see women cops on the highway!