Employ women in one-third vacant police posts: Maneka Gandhi to HM

Gandhi added that there was no improvement in recruitment numbers for police women despite the Centre having mandated such a reservation in all Union Territories and seven states

With cases of insensitivity of law enforcement agencies coming to light regularly, Minister for Woman and Child Development, Gandhi, wrote to the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, that a 33 per cent reservation for women is required to ensure sensitivity towards crimes against women.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed all the states to add fresh recruits in order to fill up around five lakh vacancies in the police force, and it is a third of these that the minister wants filled by policewomen.

As of January 2017, the force across India has 1.2 lakh policewomen, which is 7.10 per cent of the total strength. It is a small improvement from the 6.11 per cent for the same in January 2014, according to figures from the Bureau of Police Research and Development.

The letter states, "With the Supreme Court pushing for filling the vacant posts in the police force, I see an opportunity where we can make this happen... At this stage, if we can direct that at least 1/3rd of these vacancies should be filled up with women, we can greatly enhance the percentage of women in the force."

Gandhi added that there was no improvement in recruitment numbers for police women despite the Centre having mandated such a reservation in all Union Territories and seven states also agreeing in principle to do the same.

The home ministry in 2015, had made it mandatory for all union territories and also directed state governments to create additional posts for women by converting the vacant posts of male constables.

In August 2014, Gandhi, had also written to chief ministers of all states, and to Singh six months later, for implementation of the reservation policy.

Bihar, Sikkim, Gujarat, MP, Jharkhand, Tripura and Telangana had introduced a reservation policy of over 30 per cent for women in police following similar directives.

OneIndia News