Women Participation in Police Force: A Study of Odisha, Jharkhand, and West Bengal

Abstract

Ensuring the participation of women in the formal sector is still an uphill task. The challenge is greater when talking about recruiting more women to the police force. The challenges are undoubtedly located in the way police forces are perceived by the masses, as well as the lack of awareness of the employability factors involved in such a job. In June 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to the DGP’s of all States and Union Territories reiterating one of the directions/suggestions by the “230th Report of Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs”. It even spoke of holding special recruitment drives to increase the number of women in the police force to at least to 33%. Since then more than a year has passed. The paper will give a general overview of the requirement to have more women in the police force. Thereafter it will focus on the significant international and domestic legal interventions to ensure more participation of women. The paper will then focus on only three states in eastern India, to see how far they have been able to ensure/ encourage the representation of women in the police force. The paper will basically argue that apart from the government directives, it is essential to create awareness among the youth and encourage more women to join the police forces. The paper will then conclude with suggestions specifically to ensure involvement of women in the police force.