Welcoming the Honourable Home Minister, Shri Shivraj V. Patil to the Valedictory function, Ms. Kanchan Choudhry Bhattacharya, DGP Uttaranchal, Chairperson of the Conference, said that the public takes kindly to presence of women in the police is borne out from surveys and feedbacks and that their presence brings visible humanizing and acceptability to the department is not a new thing to point out. The country needs a more sensitized police with a much greater service orientation than at present, and it is clear that the police need women in their ranks more than women need to be in the police. She underlined four issues that required attention of the police organisations across the country.

>> Improving the job content for women in the police.
>> Improving the working environment for women in the police.
>> Empowering policewomen by ensuring lack of discrimination, most of all in training and deployment.
>> Acknowledging and facilitating the social reality that women need to perform dual demanding roles as police officers and home makers.

The recommendations of the conference were then presented before the invitees.
In his Valedictory address9 the Honourable Home Minister, Shri Shivraj Patil, took note of the recommendations of the Conference and unhesitatingly endorsed each of the areas and undertook to do the needful. He said that while 33% representation for women in the police, in 10 to 15 years should be the overall objective, within the next five years every police station in the country should have a women police wing of at least two women Sub- inspectors and six women constables.

He noted that women police officers the world over rely on a style of policing that uses less physical force, and are better at defusing potentially violent confrontations with citizens. Women officers often possess better communication and persuasive skills and a uniquely suited to implement the community police model. Undoubtedly, more female officers in the police will improve law enforcement’s response to not only violence against women but also will bring a tremendous change in the public perception of the police.

The Honourable Home Minister expressed the view that women in policing should not feel compelled to adopt macho style characteristics in order to be accepted and succeed in the organisation. The work environment of the police needs to be redesigned to adapt to the steadily increasing influx of women. A policewoman, who is not only a professional, but also a manager of a household, has to be given the adequate wherewithal and opportunity to take care of both.

“I am directing the BP R &D,” he said in conclusion, “ to prepare projects and involved a blueprint that would lead to a systematic recruitment and training policy so that the police force sees the increase in the ranks and numbers of professionally competent women, who can hold their own in any given adversity, and truly enhance the human resources of the force.”

Smt. Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission for Women also spoke on the occasion. Endorsing the recommendations of the conference, she stated that the National Commission for Women is already committed to enhancing the representation of women in police forces across the country, as that is the most effective way to humanise the police and to take decisive action to stem crimes against women. Recounting her interaction with women in police, she underlined the difficulties that they face in both the work and home environments, and called for concerted and sincere attempts to make positive changes in the work environment so that the police women could really become the role models for millions of women across the country.