Conscious of the increasing violence against women, and mindful of the nationwide outrage against the gang rape in New Delhi, the police in Bangalore are planning to increase the number of women in the force.
Conscious of the increasing violence against women, and mindful of the nationwide outrage against the gang rape in New Delhi, the police in Bangalore are planning to increase the number of women in the force.
At present, women comprise less than 10% of the force, but the top brass plans to 10,000 police constables over next five years, of whom 33% will be women.
The top cops of the city hope that increasing the number of women in the force would hep in preventing crimes against women, which in Bangalore are increasing, along with the demographic and geographical growth of the city.
It is learnt that Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok, who holds home ministry portfolio, on Saturday sent a clear message to the cops to take all the measures to avoid recurring of Delhi incidents in Bangalore.
Speaking with DNA, Prashanth Kumar Thakur, Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration) said the department planned to recruit 2,000 police personnel every year for the next five years.
“The police department is set to recruit 10,000 personnel in the next five years. It has been decided to ensure that 33 per cent of of them will be women. We have prepared detailed proposal and placed before the government and are waiting for clearance from the concerned departments,’’ Thakur said.
According to city police statistics, the number of women in the city police force is below 10 per cent, 9.25 per cent to be specific. The figure come down 7.55 per cent if police inspectors are taken into account.
According to the city police records, the current sanctioned number of police constables (PC) for the City is 8,942, while the actual strength is 7,205. Of them, a mere 755 (10.47%) are women police constables (WPC). There are 3,380 head constables (HC) sanctioned, while the actual strength is 2,801. Of them, 210 (7.49%) are women. Of the 699 sub-inspectors (against sanctioned posts of 841), a lowly number of 34 (4.86%) are women. Women’s representation is only slightly better among 203 police inspectors (PI) at 11 (5.41%).
Senior police officers said that generally, they did not assign women cops to do night shift, especially constables and head constables. The move to increase the percentage of policewomen is expected to check crimes against women. According to sources, Delhi, with a population of 1.8 crore has 75,000 police personnel, and Mumbai which has a population of 1.3 crore has 50,000, but Bangalore with a population of around one crore has only 19,000 (including armed force).
Sources in police force concede that many women victims hesitate to visit police station to file complaints in cases of sexual harassment of violence. Lately, a rape victims at Jnanabharathi campus did not want to go to the police station to complain against the accused. She came forward to complain to the police only after a women cop counselled her, it is learnt.
“The molestation or rape victim may feel free to explain what exactly happened to her when she visit any police station. But, in present condition it is not possible as there is lack of women cop at many police stations. The government should increase the number of women cop especially at lower ranks,” a woman police officer said.
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