The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Policewomen face discrimination

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 02, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Policewomen face discrimination

Chitra V. Ramani

Police stations have no separate rooms for women constables Police stations have no separate rooms for women constables

Bangalore: The police are expected to be fair in all their dealings. But a section of the policewomen seems to think otherwise. One promotion in 30 years speaks volumes of the treatment meted out to policewomen.

The fear of persecution from senior officials has kept the "discrimination" under wraps. The "victims" claim that the bias is evident not only in the case of promotions, but also in transfers, working conditions and allocation of work.

"I have worked in the department for more than 30 years. I joined the police in November 1976. Since then, I have been promoted only once," said Vinodha (name changed), now a head constable.

She told The Hindu that she was not alone and many were suffering silently. "Despite many of us having obtained degrees through correspondence courses to meet the eligibility criterion, we have been overlooked for promotions," she said.

These are not the only problems that policewomen face. Several of them told this reporter that the police stations had neither separate changing rooms nor the rest rooms for them.

"We have to beg the inspectors to lend room for us to change our clothes. We become the object of ridicule because of this," said constable Jyothi (name changed).

The women complained that colleagues with newborn babies were unable to nurse them because of the long working hours. "We cannot even lead a normal family life because we are expected to work long hours," said Jyothi.

Director-General and Inspector-General of Police B.S. Sial said that there were no issues with regard to promotions in the department. He said that promotions were given based on seniority and not based on sex of a candidate. "Nobody has been denied promotion neither has there been any out-of-turn promotion," he said.

"There are jobs that are suited for women, while some can be given only to men. This is not to say that one is less efficient than the other or anything," he said. On sexism in the department, he said that although the department was male-dominated, not many cases of bias had been reported.

"Male chauvinism is there in society. Our policemen are from the same society, so naturally there may be chances. But the scene is definitely better than what it was earlier," he said.

"More and more jobs are being handled by women police these days. They do not want to be differentiated," he said. There was a proposal to provide policewomen with light vehicles, instead of the Cheetah motorcycle. Mr. Sial said that policewomen insisted on Cheetahs.

"This shows that they want to be treated on a par with men," he added.

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