Anti-Rape Law Means India Needs More Female Cops

Altaf Qadri/Associated Press Policewomen at a protest march in New Delhi on Nov. 1, 2012.

NEW DELHI â€" “Who will rape such an old woman” asked a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh last month, responding to a rape complaint by a 35-year-old mother of four.

The assistant superintendent of police who asked the question, Keshav Chandra Goswami, has since been transferred, but his remark, caught on camera, showed the insensitivity women often face when approaching a predominantly male police force with complaints of sexual assault.

India’s new sexual offenses bill, passed by Parliament on March 21 and widely hailed as a big step forward for women’s safety, offers a solution: complaints of rape, stalking and other sex crimes must be taken by female officers only. But, like many of the bill’s provisions, this may prove tough to carry out, some say, given that women currently make up only 6.5 percent of India’s police force.

“I don’t think it is realistic at this point to have a female officer in every police station in the country,” said Suman Nalwa, who is in charge of the Delhi police’s special unit for women and children. “It would be better to have intelligent and sensitive officers who can handle all type of cases.”

The number of women in the police force varies widely from state to state. In some states, like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, women represent nearly 15 percent of the force, while female officers represent less than 1 percent of the police in several northeastern states. Assam, for instance, has only 186 female officers, or 0.6 percent of the state’s force, according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s data for 2011.

To comply with the new law, many states will have to recruit large numbers of women. Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, has nearly 6,500 female officers, or less than 2 percent of the total police force, according to Arun Kumar Gupta, an additional director general of police. Each of Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts has a women’s-only police station, but female officers are not always available at all of the state’s police stations.

So, if a woman approaches a police station that does not have a female officer, Mr. Gupta said, she may be taken to the closest all-women’s police station, or a female officer may be called in, depending on travel distances and the condition of the victim.

“But we are recruiting more and more women,” Mr. Gupta said in a telephone interview. “The aim is to have a female officer in every police station.”

One of the difficulties they face, he said, is the “disproportionate distribution” of female officers, with a majority clustered in urban areas. Female officers are reluctant to take rural postings because of family responsibilities, a problem the police in Uttar Pradesh are looking to tackle with better housing and benefits, he said.

Delhi escapes many of the hurdles faced by larger states. With more than 5,000 female officers, it has one of the largest contingents of women police. And these numbers are set to increase, after the fatal gang rape of a young woman in December in South Delhi sparked large protests demanding better protection for women.

In January, the home minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, ordered that every police station in Delhi must have two women sub inspectors and seven women constables. The police are in the process of recruiting over 2,500 new female officers to meet this target, said Sudhir Yadav, a special commissioner of police in Delhi.

Already, female officers are available at all hours in each of Delhi’s 161 police stations, he said. Many of those who had joined the force as traffic cops, self-defense trainers or telephone operators in police control rooms have been redeployed, he said.

Delhi police officials are also working to station volunteers from non-governmental organizations and crisis intervention centers to help police officers deal with complainants who are facing trauma or other special circumstances.

“Sometimes, women are more comfortable talking to other women,” Mr. Yadav said. “We will make sure they have that option.”