As the above discussions have indicated, mainstreaming women in police is a challenging task and requires multi pronged efforts to overcome the various hindering factors.

There is a need for capacity building to empower women to overcome the personal factors hindering them from functioning effectively. An evaluation of the Spring Board trained women has indicated that the training made a positive impact on women in police. Those who participated in this program are more confident and self-assured. They are willing to undertake greater challenge and take ownership for their development. Benefits to participants are with respect to increased self-awareness; receptivity and openness to different perspective of their roles and the department; increased their self worth and their ability to assert and influence their environment. The positive experiences after attending the programme suggests that there is a need to carry forward this initiative of empowering women. It is indeed very difficult to deal with the social barriers hindering women from being inducted into the main stream. Efforts can be made to raise awareness on these issues in society through media and other educational and sensitization programs. Mentoring and providing role models would definitely help. Recognition and rewards for women achievers would also provide incentives. However, women themselves need to be equipped to face these challenges in an appropriate manner.

Bringing about structural/systemic changes would greatly enhance mainstreaming of women in police. First and foremost there is a need to formulate women friendly policies. Examine and change the policies that are restrictive of women. Maintain gender segregated data to monitor whether women are being given equal opportunities for their professional growth. Keep a directory of qualified women while considering important assignments. Quite often women miss out on significant assignments because they are invisible. Ensure that women are there in all selection and promotion committees. It is also important to sensitize selection committee members for non- sexist interviewing.

At the operational level, women must be exposed to roles of varying difficulty and challenge. There must be a well thought out plan to build opportunities to experience success in the initial stages of their career, for building confidence and self-worth. Women inductees should be assigned field duties during the first four to five years of joining. Only after they have been exposed to demanding jobs where they can test and build their resilience, they should be given desk jobs.

Need-based training to sharpen job-related knowledge and skills are required. Women need to be given training in work- related skills like investigation, finger prints, handling latest arms, ammunition, weapons, explosives and prevention of terrorism, computer hardware and software, office procedures, English conversation and driving, to name a few. The department needs to make concerted efforts to sensitize male employees as well as decision-makers on the relevance of the Springboard Programme. On the whole, women should be prepared for the rough and tough life of police and given training in self-defense. They should be trained in all areas to enable them to be equally effective as men. Women need to be given refresher courses/advanced training systematically to sustain learning and its application on the job.

In a traditionally male-dominated profession women face barriers as a result of occupational role norms and gender role norms. The organizational power structure also tends to exclude women from the department's informal networking, resulting in low access to significant work-related information and patronage for advancement. The department needs to make concerted efforts to utilize the abilities of women in police through appropriate changes in deployment practices and training. A policy for job rotation needs to be formulated for women and men police personnel. Those in commanding positions must be orientated to view a woman as a member of the police force and not as a woman. There should be a policy for assigning field duties to all inductees, regardless of gender, for first four to five years of service. This would be particularly helpful in exposing women to a wider range of policing activities, build their competence and confidence and facilitate in equalizing the perceived gender differences.

Discriminatory practices such as prefixing 'W' to the rank for women needs to be discontinued. Since part of the problems and pressures that women face are because of being a minority, integration would be enhanced by increasing their numerical representation in the department.

I would like to express my gratitude to The British Council, New Delhi, for sponsoring the survey on Perceived Work Experiences and Organisational Role Stress of Women in police prior to the run up to the first national conference on women in police held in New Delhi in 2002.

Subhash Joshi, IPS and Dr.(Mrs.) Rekha Pande. Gender Issues and the Police in India. A sudy of Women in Police in Andra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Academy, Ministry of Home Affrairs, Government of India, 1999.