By IANS
New Delhi : The government has agreed to increase the reservation for women in police forces to 10 percent, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said Wednesday.
“In a recent meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil, we had requested him to increase the number of women in central security forces to 33 percent,” she said on the occasion of the second anniversary of ‘Parivartan’, the women protection programme run by Delhi Police.
“He has agreed to increase the number to 10 percent. The home minister has informed that there were practical difficulties in implementing the proposal, as a substantial number of women were not coming forward to join the forces,” she added.
The states currently have different quotas for women in police force. For example, Delhi sets six percent police jobs aside for women.
The minister said that the government was also considering enacting laws for the protection and empowerment of the women.
“We have drafted a comprehensive legislation to check the sexual harassment at the work place.
“Such policies and programmes about women protection could be translated and implemented at the grass-roots level effectively through police. Hence there is utmost need to sensitise police forces about women’s issues,” she said.
Expressing concern over cases of domestic violence, Chowdhury said the government was reviewing the implementation of the concerned act but the government’s efforts would not suffice until a campaign is taken up to change the mindset in general about the status of women in society.
Delhi Police had launched Parivartan in 2005 in 20 police beats of the northwest district to combat violence against women.
It has helped in curbing incidents of violence in the concerned districts significantly, Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal said.
“Combating crime against women is one of our top priorities, so we are sensitising the staff in dealing with crime against women. Our endeavour is to give policing a human face,” Dadwal said.