Women first entered the police force in India in 1938 in a few provinces and princely states. After Independence, Delhi police force was the first to recruit police women on a regular basis with effect from 1948 followed by Andhra Pradesh in 1952 and Karnataka in 1960 and by 1987 ten States and Union Territories had introduced women police. Tamil Nadu, though a slow starter with introduction women police only in 1973-74, owing to the policy decision of the Government in reserving 30% for women in all direct recruitment (Tamil Government G.O. MS.No. 847 Home (Police III) Department dated 8th June, 1995), has added 3, 900 women to the police department since 1996-2001 to "man" the 195 All Woman Police Stations covering all the sub-divisions in Tamil Nadu and with its policy decision to post women police in regular police stations, as many as 848 women Sub-Inspectors and 1984 women constables, who are undergoing training will join the police organisation on 15.9.2005 thereby making Tamil Nadu the largest women force in India - with 10, 201 women personnel out of its total strength of 95, 412 amounting 10.69%. The strength of women police in various States is given in Annexure-1 and the strength of women police in Tamil Nadu was to the extent of 7369 (22.6%) of the total strength of women personnel in India with 32, 481 as on 1.1.2003 with Maharashtra occupying the second position with 3507 women police. (Hand Book on police , Tamil Nadu. Source: BPR&D, ).