Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said women will comprise 25% of the new recruits for various posts in the State’s Police Department.
Speaking at the Passing Out Parade of the 6th batch of Women Civil Police Constables at District Armed Reserve (DAR) Parade Grounds in Mysuru on Tuesday, Mr. Jnanendra said women already comprise about 10% of the police force in the State. “Our intention is to increase their percentage to 25%,” he said.
Already, there is a women’s police station in each district of the State. “There are a total of 36 women’s police stations in the State. There is one women’s police station in each of the 30 districts, besides one each in the police commissionerates,” he said.
The department was planning to set up a helpdesk for women in each police station in the State to give confidence to women to register complaints. Later, speaking to reporters, Mr. Jnanendra said efforts were also under way to post at least three women constables in each police station. He claimed that the BJP government was fast filling up the vacancies in the department. The number of vacancies had come down from 33,000 four years ago to 16,000 at present.
The department was filling up another 4,000 posts this year including all the vacant posts of sub inspectors, he said, expressing confidence of filling up all vacant posts in the next two years.
Among those to be recruited this year, will be 250 forensic sciences personnel, who will assist the department in gathering evidence from the scene of crime. Though department officials can also collect evidence, the government, after the alleged gang rape case in Mysuru, decided to recruit 250 post graduates exclusively for the purpose and equip them with technical training in gathering evidence at crime scenes.
He also said that a total of 700 girl students from different colleges in Mysuru were undergoing training in self-defence by the department.
Meanwhile, a total of 240 probationary women constables completed their eight-month Foundation Training at Police Training School (PTS) in Mysuru. Dharinidevi Malagathi, principal, PTS, said a majority of probationers had the qualification of higher education. About 180 of them were graduates and 38 were postgraduates. While one had a diploma, another 21 had passed PUC.
