NEW DELHI: Delhi Police is once again facing public ire as three days after the Ramjas College incident; the Delhi Commission for Women has issued a notice to the department accusing their male staff of attacking female protesters. Similar situation occurs whenever there is a protest in the Capital, as Delhi Police is facing a severe shortage of female cops at junior as well as senior level. A top police official said of the 85,000 employees in the department, only 10% are females.
Senior officials told that during the clash, North District Police couldn’t manage to deploy sufficient female staff. Mere 60 female cops were deployed to handle over 250 female protesters.
While situation is bad at lower level, condition is worse at top level. Currently, there is no female IPS officer handling law and order.
In 2013, while monitoring progress in improving policing in the capital after Nirbhaya gangrape, Delhi High Court had expressed concern over the imbalance in the men-women ratio in police department. The court had said, “Knowing well what incidents are happening in the city, women personnel should be deployed on at least 50% posts.” Referring to a police report, giving details about the total number of personnel in the force, the bench said, “To reach 30% reservation for women, it will take 10 years.”
Meanwhile, there is no joint commissioner rank woman IPS officer serving in range or handling law and order, even though Delhi Police has two Joint commissioner rank officers, Shalini Singh of 1996 batch and Garima Bhatnagar of 1994 batch officer, handling Rashtrapati Bhawan and Traffic.
Moreover, there was only one Special CP rank woman IPS Sundari Nanda, who left Delhi Police recently. Of the 13 districts, only one has a female DCP. DCP Nupur Prasad is heading the newly created Shahdara district.
Delhi Police's data says New Delhi district witnessed 1,460 demonstrations and 3,206 dharnas last year.