In India, law enforcement is supervised by different agencies, which according to the constitution of India are entitled to maintain law and order in different states and territories. These agencies are all controlled by the Central Government and are divided into different units like the Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, National Security Guard, Central Reserve Police Force, and so on. Although the role of women in these armed forces was previously limited to supervisory capacity, however, later on, better roles for women were created in these forces. In fact, the Ministry of Home Affairs is now championing the fact that more women candidates will be given preferential treatment in the paramilitary constabularies as well as recruitment as combat officers in all the Central Armed Police Forces. It was declared by the union home minister that there will be around 15 per cent and 5 per cent, female candidates, in the CRPF and CISF respectively.
Women IPS officers
Although women were not initially part of the Indian Police Service (IPS) since its inception, it was after the year 1972 that India received some of the jewels in the form of women IPS officers to protect their country. Let’s take a look at the achievements and contributions of these wonderful and exemplary women IPS officers:
Kiran Bedi: She was the first woman IPS officer to join the post in the year 1972 and continued to serve the country for 35 years. Her remarkable contributions include reforms at the Tihar jail for which she gained popularity all over the world.
Sanjukta Parashar: She is known as the Iron Lady of Assam and has the record of taking down 16 militants without batting an eyelid. At the age of 23, she became one of the most promising and youngest IPS officers who was assigned the responsibility to curb the ethnic violence between the Bodo and illegal Bangladeshi militants in Udalguri that had become a matter of national importance.
Merin Joseph: An aspirant of the Indian Police Service (IPS) from her childhood, Merin Joseph fulfilled her dream in the year 2012. However, her dream materialized completely when she and her team solved a rape case of a child that was going on for two years, finally taking down the accused from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the year 2019.
Subhashini Sankaran: She was the first IPS officer who was entrusted with the chief minister’s security in Assam. Not long after her recruitment, she busted a rhinoceros poaching ring that had been operating near the Kaziranga National Park.
Aparajita Rai: She was the first woman IPS officer from the Gorkhas community. It is the inhuman treatment and insensitivity that she and her community have been receiving for years that motivated her to dream of doing something and emerge as an exemplary figure for the future generations of Gorkhas to follow.
India has seen many of its daughters always stepping up to fight for a noble cause throughout history including the freedom struggle of a colonized India. Just the way the fierce personalities like Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi, Sarojini Naidu, and Annie Besant fought for the country and its people as valorous women in the history of India, these women IPS officers also, in the current landscape of the 21st century modern India have contributed colossally and made the country and its people proud. They have not only fulfilled their dreams of doing something for the nation but also changed the perspectives and stereotypes established and practised by an orthodox Indian mindset. They have clearly smashed the age-old rules and practices that aimed to fetter women to limit their rights and choices in life and society at large. As a result, today as millions of Indians take the UPSC exam every year, which is the main gateway to becoming an IPS officer, we are seeing several faces of women who are not only taking this exam but also sailing through it. However, India clearly needs more women IPS officers in law enforcement posts.
It cannot be denied that the number of crimes against women is increasing every second in the country and there is no vigilante in the vicinity who can take up the baton to avenge the wrongs meted out to these women. Although the law enforcement of the country is constantly striving to secure the position of women in Indian society, the psychological trauma that is inflicted on them due to these crimes can be barely fathomed with equal depth by men, unlike women. Women are endowed with the natural instinct of compassion, patience, and empathy which is very important as a law enforcement officer. Hunting down a criminal or getting one arrested is something that every law enforcement officer or IPS officer is trained to do, but very few can actually assess the extent of what the victims in the case might have endured. If more women are recruited as IPS officers in Indian law enforcement, the women would be able to provide not just legal support, but also emotional and moral support to the women victims. It becomes very difficult for a woman to open up to a male officer, especially in cases of any sexual assault, molestation, or even mental abuse for that matter, which can, on the contrary, become relatively effortless for a female law enforcement officer come while trying to understand every aspect of the report in hand.
Moreover, it has also been observed that juvenile delinquents respond positively while in the company of women police officers in comparison to their male counterparts because women are naturally capable of communicating with these delinquents with compassion and exceptional communication skills. So, there is no denying that women can not only demonstrate exemplary at their duties but are also naturally compatible and resourceful to perform and deliver at the job. In fact, with a good and equal representation of both in the enforcement demography, they could actually complement each other with their inherent capabilities and competencies when it comes to representing a united front in protecting the people of this country against heinous crimes.
