Except Manipur and Sikkim…NE States have less women personnel : Report

Shillong, February 26 2016 :Except for Manipur and Sikkim, all six North Eastern States of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and
Mizoram have less number of women police in their respective State police force as compared to their male counterparts, a latest report on gender equality in the police force said.

Assam was ranked the lowest with women police comprising less than one per cent of the total police force.

Out of the total 55,033 personnel, there were only 510 women police, which constitutes to about 0.93 per cent of the force, the report titled Rough Road to Equality, released here recently, said.

The report was collected specifically for the Meghalaya Police and commissioned by the Common Wealth Human Rights Initiatives in trying to understand the importance of policing role played by women counterparts in the force.

Nagaland and Meghalaya were not far off though having just 1.05 and 2.87 per cent respectively till January 2014, although the latter has increased its women personnel to 3.99 per cent when they recruited another 160 more in 2015, the report said.

Of the 24,030 police personnel in Nagaland, there were only 253 women, while in Meghalaya there were 489 women in the 11,500 plus
force.

The story was similar in Tripura where there were only 777 women in the force of 23,619 police personnel, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have a slightly improved presence of women in the force with over five per cent.

Of the 11,247 police force in Arunachal Pradesh, women police constitute 582 of them with a percentage of 5.17, while there were 568
women police in a force of 9,895 personnel in Mizoram, the report stated.

All these States were ranked below the National average of 6.11 per cent, it said.

While there was improved presence of women in the police force in Sikkim and Manipur, there were 333 women in a force of 4,281 personnel in Sikkim and 2,040 women in a force of 24,832 personnel in Manipur.

States like Chandigarh has nearly 15 per cent women police personnel in their force, while women police constitutes over ten per cent of the entire force in Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Himachal Pradesh and Maharastra, the report added.