Dr. Avnish Jolly,11 July:Kerala will now depend more on its women police force for maintenance of law and order situation in the State. The state government has decided to induct more women in the police force has already initiated measures to increase number of women police officers.
Announcing this in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Home Minister, Kerala said that the Kerala Police Act would be amended soon to enable the public service commission (PSC) to invite applications from women for the posts of sub-inspectors. At present women are not recruited directly as sub-inspectors.
In a written reply during question hour, Kodiyeri said the police department feels a shortage of women police officers. The state police force at present has 74 women sub-inspectors, 21 circle inspectors, one deputy superintendent, one superintendent of police and three women IPS officers. The women police constables in the state are just about 2,000 in the 50,000-strong general branch of the force.
Welcoming the minister’s announcement, Inspector General of Police B Sandhya said that it would be really good if there were more women police officers in the state police and the general and executive branches of the police want a sizeable number of women police officials. Today the job of the Station House Officer (SHO) is done by men. The presence of a woman officer, especially in a police station, would be nice.
The written test for the sub-inspector’s post would be common for both men and women. However, the women would not be asked to compete with men in the physical test.