Chennai: The women police of today are being given the opportunity to take up positions of leadership in the department. In a span of two years, the city has witnessed an increase in the number of women police inspectors at the police stations and this is expected to bring a change in policing. Before the period of March 2017, the women law and order Inspectors in the city as per the statistics provided by the city police were two. Now it has increased to eight women inspectors. The growth rate of the number of women crime inspectors is from 14 to 49. A senior police officer said the Intelligence section earlier had no women Inspectors but now there are two women personal with the designation if Inspector and the strength of the women police inspectors in the Central Crime Branch has increased from three to twelve. Besides, the 35 All Women Police stations have women inspectors. Police Commissioner Mr. A.K. Viswanathan is encouraging women to take up the role of inspectors rather than stick to desk jobs. In comparison to the professional training imparted to the women police personal to their male counterparts the difference is nil. By increasing the number of women police inspectors, policing itself will see an improvement. They will abide by the law and give respect to human rights. The handling of suspects will be enhanced and the brutality will be decreased, said Former IPS officer Ms. G. Thilagavathy. Taking into consideration the formation of the District-Wise women’s wing, the first batch of women Sub-Inspectors were recruited in 1999-2000. The second batch for law and order Sub-Inspectors were recruited in 2004, according to the officials. At that time, there were a limited number of vacancies. Presently many of the male Inspectors have been promoted as Assistant Commissioners and many have retired. Hence, the direct women Sub-Inspectors were promoted in 2016, officials said. The training that is imparted to both the women and male personal are the same. Women police personal can prove to be more efficient in the maintenance of law and order, Inspector A. Alamelu, law and order, Chennai Fort police station said. She asserted saying that a male gangster’s ego gets hurt when he gets hits by a woman police personal. Therefore, they tend to obey us. Women police personal in an increased number should be alloted duties at main stations. In the earlier days, women were reluctant to take up jobs due to family pressure. Now the condition is different as we are very confident and get support from our families. Therefore, we can work like our male counterparts. Besides even when attending to criminal cases, women can gather intelligence easily as they are good in communication, K. Porkodi, law and order inspector, Ambattur, said. ]]>
