National Police Commemoration Day: Meet The Gutsy Women Police Officers Of India!

Spread the love

When Kiran Bedi became the first female Indian Police Service officer, the whole country went gaga over her.

And it’s been more than four decades, several female police officers have followed her steps and are changing the way we imagine women officers in Indian Police. On the occasion of National Police Commemoration Day, Infano introduces you to a few of the women police officers whose actions inspired many of us!

Aparna Lavakumar

When the Senior Civil Police Officer (SCPO) of Irinjalakuda, Thrissur met a student of Class 5 during one of her awareness camps at a local school, she was revealed that the boy was a cancer survivor. The kid lost his hair to chemotherapy and was trying to come to terms with his bald appearance and was ridiculed by his classmates for the same.

A few days later, she was spotted in a beauty salon chopping her hair off entirely. She donated her hair to an NGO which prepares wigs for cancer survivors. But that was not the only thing — her main agenda was to normalise the baldness which society often perceives with mockery.

“Going bald can be severely traumatic for children with cancer, who are already battling for life at such a nascent age. I wanted to support them by proving that baldness is not a matter of shame, earlier, I had cut off my hair partially to donate for the cause. This time I felt like having a full-fledged tonsure to stand in solidarity with the patients,” she said in an interview with TBI.

Although as per the Kerala Police’s uniform regulations, officers are not allowed to shave their heads. But, the then Thrissur police chief made an exception in Aparna’s case due to her laudable gesture.

Nazia Khan

The recipient of several National and State Awards, Khan is known for her bravery and social work. She was appointed as a Special Police Officer of UP Police at the age of 18. The young officer has also won the national bravery award earlier for taking on a drug and gambling ring in Agra.

Anjana Choudhary & Rekha Mishra

A Railway Protection Force (RPF) Officer, Anjana is often found around Borivali railway station on Mumbai’s Western line. She is generally seen patrolling the station platforms to spot children who might be in trouble.

Another RPF officer Rekha patrols around Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station and spots kids wandering around the platforms to help.

The duo has managed to rescue over 600 children so far. Most of these children were either kidnapped, became victims of child trafficking or ran away from their homes. Mishra, the 2014 batch officer, has rescued over 400 children single-handedly. Their admiration got them the nickname ‘Mother India’.

Sonia Singh

When the Nagaland Police felt that the local residents were more scared of them rather than trusting, they decided to change this perception with ‘Police Ke Pathshala’ — an initiative aiming to bring the student community and police closer.

This initiative was led by Sonia Singh, Inspector General of Police (Range), who took the responsibility of conducting these sessions at schools and colleges personally. The primary objective was to change the perception of the student community for the police, but it was not limited only to that.

“We are looking to build trust by raising their awareness about procedures of law and criminal acts like domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, cyberstalking, revenge porn and drug abuse, etc. This is about building trust with them so that they can share any vital information with the police without any hesitation,” Sonia said.

M Deepika

The IPS Officer behind the implementation of Andhra Pradesh’s Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, ‘Disha’, M Deepika started at the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP) in the Disha Cell created within the state’s Crime Investigation Department (CID).

“The government is appointing special public prosecutors to help with the drafting of chargesheets, improving the capabilities of forensic labs, hiring quality medical doctors, particularly gynaecologists since we have trouble getting timely reports and enlisting quality cyber experts. It will include local women residents and a Mahila Mitra coordinator from our side, and bring to the notice of the police any serious crimes against women,” says the 2014 batch IPS officer.

Dr Suman D Pennekar

Hailing from the Beed village of Belagavi, this IPS Officer rescued over 4,300 people stranded at the devastating floods of Kodagu. Previously, the team led by this fearless SP arrested the kingpin of the timber mafia, Kallichanda Noban, and seized timber worth Rs 1 crore following a raid on his property.

Despite the unlimited warnings from the mafia, she enforced the rule of banning the felling and transportation of trees. Dr Suman is also a qualified Ayurvedic doctor who strives at improving the living standards of rural India.

On this day, Infano also salutes and pays tributes to the policemen and healthcare professionals who, being the frontline soldiers, lost their lives on duty. We owe you! #InfanoWomen

Featured Image

Spread the love

In the last few days, we have been celebrating the first woman Vice President of color -Kamala Harris – of the United States, the most powerful country in the world. This is a true victory for us, fighting for women’s equality and women empowerment. Indians have also been very vocal about their celebration of her victory, which is more special to us considering, that she has Indian roots. As we celebrate this victory of womanhood, when we look into the political scenario in India, we see a grim picture – women make up only 14% of the Parliament as of 2019, though they make up around 50% of India’s population. Furthermore, women represent only 9% in various state assemblies.

Lack of interest due to lack of inclusiveness

So, what is stopping the women to actively participate and reach higher heights in politics?

The most common answer to this is that women are not really interested in politics. But the thing to ponder here is whether girls/women get equal opportunity or an ambiance to develop this interest. We still live in a society where the education of girls is given secondary preference to her brothers, where the girl child is expected to do household chores in addition to her studies, where important issues are discussed and decisions taken by the men in the family, where the main work of a woman from a young age is still considered as cooking and tending for the family. So, does she really get the environment to develop an interest in politics – probably not?

Empowering the rural woman

The 73rd Amendment Act of 1992 brought about radical changes in rural governance especially with the guarantee of one-third reservation of seats for women in Panchayati elections. This was a great initiative to improve women’s participation in politics. But rural areas still face very basic problems of patriarchy, poverty, female illiteracy, male dominance. Till the time, these basic problems are eliminated, it is difficult that this one-third of reserved seats are true representatives of the people. These seats can be easily bought by offering more basic essentials in return for dummy representation. When we talk about women empowerment, the focus also needs to be on rural women whose voices have been shut down for ages.

Objectification – every day, every where

We have come across several cases in the past few years where we see women even in high positions of political parties being objectified – some for their looks, some for their dressing sense, some for their past profession. These references are mostly never even mentioned for their male counterparts. This makes one wonder how much worse things would be for women still starting up and trying to find a foothold in politics. This objectification is an indication of the regressive mindset that still exists in society. The insecurity of men when seeing their female colleague rise up the ladder exists in almost every section of our society, but more so in areas that have been pre-dominantly male-dominated, like politics.

Acceptance

Research suggests that women legislators in India raise economic performance in their constituencies by about 1.8 percentage points per year more than male legislators. Studies also confirm that women are less likely to be corrupt with regards to their male counterparts. Recently, we have seen the efficiency with which Covid situations have been handled by nations like New Zealand and Germany which are headed by women in comparison to other countries. In spite of this, there is still a reluctance in society to accept the capabilities of women. Acknowledging the role and vision of women in improving the socio-economic condition of a country is often underplayed and not accepted.

Our Future

India was one of the countries in the world, which was headed by a woman, when it was almost unthinkable for many other countries, even the most developed one. Even in the current day political scenario, we have several strong women personalities – Nirmala Sitharaman – Minister of Finance, Smriti Irani – Minister of Textiles, Minister of Women and Child Development Sonia Gandhi – President of the Opposition party, Mamata Banerjee – Chief Minister of Bengal to name a few. However, the fact remains that these women remain largely anomalies in the Indian political scene rather than the norm. Studies show that for women to have a meaningful impact in Parliament, they need to reach at least a 30% threshold. We are still far away from this number, but hopefully, we will reach there soon in order to fulfill the dream of a gender-equal India.