New Delhi: The country has just 5.33 percent women in police forces despite growing demands for more representation in law enforcement agencies.
According to Home Ministry statistics, out of 15,85,117 personnel working in state police forces, only 84,479 or just 5.33 percent are women.
Besides, there are just 499 all-women police stations in the country out of a total 15,000 stations.
The demand for more women in police forces has been growing since the gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi on December 16. There were also 2,28,650 incidents of crime against women reported in 2011, of which 24,206 were of rape.
Uttar Pradesh has 2,586 women police personnel which is just 1.49 percent of the total 1,73,341 personnel while Andhra Pradesh has 2,031 policewomen, just 2.27 percent of its total 89,325 police personnel.
There are 1,485 policewomen (2.18 percent) in Bihar out of the total 67,964 police personnel. Madhya Pradesh, where the highest number of rapes took place in 2011, there are 3,010 policewomen (3.93 percent) out of the 76,506 personnel.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Chandigarh have relatively better representation of women in their police forces.
Out of the 1,34,696 police personnel in Maharashtra, 20,062 or 14.89 percent are women while in Tamil Nadu out of the 95,745 police personnel, 10,118 (10.57 percent) are women and in Chandigarh, 13.48 percent or 985 are policewomen out of the 7,308 police personnel.
There are 5,356 policewomen (7.13 percent) in Delhi out of 75,169 police personnel.
PTI
