NEW DELHI: Nine Indian states will take more than 50 years to increase the share of women in their police force to 33 per cent, according to the India Justice Report.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will take at least 3,535 years to give due representation to women in police.
Karnataka is the only state to have very nearly filled officer level reservations in all caste categories.
Nationally, a majority of states are unable to meet their declared caste quotas.
Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli had the highest share of women in their overall police force at 18 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.
The India Justice Report by Tata Trusts released on Thursday finds that women are poorly represented, accounting for 7 per cent of the police, 10 per cent of prison staff and about 26.5 per cent of all judges in the high courts and subordinate courts.
Similarly, the percentage of women’s representation in the higher judiciary, too, is minimal.
Only one high court has a judicial vacancy of less than 20 per cent and not in a single state does the percentage of women judges in a high court run into double figures.
As per the report, seven states did not have a single women judge in the high court.
Meghalaya has the highest share of women judges in subordinate courts at 74 per cent, followed by Goa at 66 per cent. Sikkim has the highest share of women both at the high court and subordinate levels.
The report also highlights the reasons behind needing more women judges on the bench and says, “Women on the bench also influence the quality of judicial decision-making because the inclusion of their life experiences must necessarily allow a wider variety of human experiences into the process of judging.”
An assessment of 18 bigger states revealed that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the worst justice system in India. While UP is ranked at the bottom of the list, Bihar stood at number 17.
The state with the best justice system, according to the report,t is Maharashtra, followed by Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana.