New Delhi, July 7
The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) in its latest report on Data on Police Organisations (DoPO) has revealed that the police forces across India have grown by 32 per cent in the last 10 years, but the share of women in them is just 10.5 per cent against a desired 33 per cent level.
Women Help Desks, envisioned as the first and single point of contact for any woman walking into a police station, are still in 41 per cent of the police stations across India, the report said.
The share of Scheduled Caste (SCs) has marginally increased from 12.6 per cent in 2010 to 15.2 per cent in 2020, but that of Scheduled Tribes (STs) has only inched up from 10.6 per cent in 2010 to 11.7 per cent in 2020.
The Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have registered a stronger representation from 20.8 per cent in 2010 to 28.8 per cent in 2020.
“Governments at the Union, State, and Union Territory levels have accepted diversity in their police forces, both by policy and mandate,” it said, but went on to add that among the 24 States and UTs that have provision of reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs, only Karnataka has met its statutory reserved quotas in 2020.
Among the 17 States and UTs that have mandated 33 percent of their police force to comprise women, none has achieved their target, the report said.
The report stated that between 2010 and 2020, total police numbers have increased by 32 per cent, growing from 15.6 lakh to 20.7 lakh. But vacancies in constabulary and officer ranks have remained stagnant.
Overall vacancies are highest in Bihar (41.8 per cent) and lowest in Uttarakhand (6.8 per cent), the report revealed.
It further said the percentage of women in the police force was 10.5 per cent against the desired target of 33 per cent. Among large and mid-sized states, Tamil Nadu’s women strength was 19.4 per cent, Bihar’s 17.4 per cent and Gujarat’s 16 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, with 6.3 per cent share of women, has the lowest share closely followed by Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh with 6.6 per cent each.
The report shows that 5,396 of the total 17,233 police stations in India do not have a single CCTV camera. Only Odisha, Telangana and Puducherry have at least one CCTV in all police stations. Rajasthan, Manipur, Ladakh, Lakshadweep have reported less than 1 per cent police stations with CCTV cameras.
