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Police - Can it evolve a secure
and harmonious society
I am extremely happy to be present at the Second National
Conference for Women in police. Such a conference has come not a
day too soon.This is the era of women empowerment. Gone are the
days when women were considered subservient or secondary in
almost all walks of life compared to men. It has now amply been
proved that women are capable of executing any job as
efficiently as men, if not more so.
I am particularly happy that care has been taken in this
Conference to invite respresentatives of women from all ranks of
the police force. This is a very significant step to bring about
total cohesion in putting forth objectives and charting out the
proper approach to achieve them. The topic I have selected for
discussion today is: "Police ? Can it evolve a secure and
harmonious society".
Emerging women
While talking to you, I am reminded of Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharatiar, who in 1910 composed the
poem envisioning women of India:
This beautiful poem meansx
She walks with raised head, with her eyes looking straight,
She has her principles, unafraid of anybody!
She has a lofty and knowledge based pride,
Such cultured women, don't falter from the chosen path.
She drives ignorance away. She welcomes the bliss of life.
With learned mind, this is the Dharma of emerging woman.
The dream of the poet for emerging women aptly suits the police women in the country.
Women Police Force for Law and Order with Compassion
We have a very efficient police force in the country
who have many times excelled themselves in not only
tackling crime but also in ensuring peace and harmony.
Women Police have also significantly contributed in this
regard. Conferences like this would enable all ranks of
women police to share from one another the lessons and
experiences each had in her own state. That will provide
a wholesome and holistic approach to the problems which
are to be tackled by them.
Unfortunately, the incidence of crimes against women has
quite significantly gone up and the role of the police,
particularly women police has become quite crucial in
such cases. Nobody can understand a woman?s problem
better than another woman and therefore the role of
women police becomes all the more critical. Womankind
including crime particularly in the present day world
where there is so much emphasis on reformative
approaches rather than retributive ones.
Organiszation Empowerment
I would like to recall an incident of 1972, nearly 3
decades ago. When Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of
ISRO, passed away there was indeed a crisis looking for
a dynamic management system for the space programme.
Prof Kamala Choudhary a renowned management expert from
IIM, Ahmedabad was given the task by Prof MGK Menon the
then Chairman, ISRO to re-organize ISRO with the changed
environment and the mission. She started her work by
interviewing different cross section of scientists,
technicians and staff and came out with a recognization
management plan for ISRO which was unique and stands
even today. It had two important aspects ? empowering
the scientist and creating people centric missions,
taking into account the organization vision and people's
dreams and aspiraplan electrified ISRO to achieve major
milestones and has become a very successful organization
with eminent leaders heading ISRO.
I am telling you this incident to highlight the
contribution of women for the growth of our society. For
enabling them to contribute enthusiastically with full
vigour, it is essential that we provide them an equal
opportunity in all walks of life including the police
profession. However, in the police organization also
like other organization there appears to be differential
perception about women when response is sought from men
in the police.
Interaction of police forces
When we study the men's perception of women police officers we find that they feel: women are not
discriminated; they are given same responsibilities, they are given the same incentives and promotion,there is no need to integrate, superiors are not selective, women should not be given general duties on
par-with men, and women need more training to bring them on par. If we get the women's perception
on all these issues we will find that the response will be exactly the opposite. How do we correct this
anomaly. One of the important corrective methods is through education and training. A forum like this
conference need to discuss these aspects. Gender sensitivity training
Over the years we have not had special training programmes on gender sensitive issues for men and
women employees. There is a need to have sensitization training programme organised for this purpose
with an objective to bring out the strengths of men and women individually and how both of them can
collaborate effectively and contribute to the common goals of the organisation. Such a training should
also address the special needs of women and how the system has to pay attention to maintain
harmony in the society. This will remove the misconception and misperceptions among the
employees.
Planning of the tasks for men and women, working hours, sharing of the responsibility and performance
a heterogeneous team of men and women can be explained through a role play exercise. This will
definitely bring a healthy understanding of the contribution of men by women and vice versa in the
organizational set up. Periodic Feedback from personnel Every police unit has to be made aware of the necessity to ensure that there is no difference between
men and women. The Commanding officers can have a roster system. The work allocation can be done
on the basis of the roster randomly for men and women as is being done by the High Court and
Supreme Court. Such random allocation of tasks will remove the feeling that women are not being
treated equal while allocating some tasks. Also, the Commanding officers should have a meeting with
all the personnel once in a month to hear specific grievances from individual officers. Based on these
grievances there must be immediate corrective action if the grievance is found to be genuine. Such a
transparent system will definitely promote confidence among all personnel particularly the women if
there are any gender issues. Also, periodically senior officers and commanding officers should highlight
the importance of team work between men and women during their inspection visits to various units.
Preferably while planning operation it is always desirable to have a mixed team of men and women.
Women must be given the leadership in some cases and the men should take the leadership in few
others. Now I would like to discuss about cyber crimes which is growing and women police personnel
can definitely play an important role in detection and prevention of such crimes.
Cyber crimes
Economic prosperity by 2020 will also mean that many of the Indians will be doing business in the digital
world on the web. In this new era, crime, law and justice will be completely different from the present.
In the present law, for example, the jurisdiction will correspond to the location where the crime is
committed and where the damage occurs very often both being the same location. Whereas in the
digital world, the crime may originate from a strange place even outside our own shores and may
damage organizational wealth which will be in the digital form in multiple locations. In the 20th century,
a nation's business transactions and wealth creation were based on transfer of materials (atoms) from
one place to the other. In the 21st century wealth is created whenever information in the form of
electrons is transferred across the networks in a borderless world. Our police system has to build its
capacity to define jurisdictions in a way that any crime committed against India or her assets by
anyone from anywhere shall be punishable by Indian law. It may be true for other countries also. The
police community must enable formulation of progressive and innovative crime detection systems for
the digital economy that will be one of the vital components of a developed nation. Cyber crime being
technology driven it needs unique training system for detection and prevention. Women police personnel
are the most suited for prevention of such crimes.
Mission of Police personnel
Every member of the police force has his/her dream. It has to be groomed. When I think of success in
life first requirement is we should all have a mission or goal. Realization of a mission or goal is achieved
through a four step process. The first one is to have a goal on where you would like to reach in the
next five years. The second one is to acquire the knowledge and experience needed to reach that
goal. Third one is continuous hard work which I call 'sweat, sweat and sweat'. The fourth one is
perseverance. Here I am reminded of an important advice given by my Guru Prof Satish Dhawan who
used to tell “if you do not work, no problem will occur, but if you do a mission or task definitely
problems of varying magnitudes will crop up. But problems should not become the master of the
individuals, individuals should become master of the problem, defeat and succeed”. Now I would like to
give some suggested actions for this conference.
Suggested Actions
I sincerely hope this Conference will make positive recommendation not only to improve the working
conditions of women police but also to create opportunities for learning and also training themselves
for much higher and more difficult task. I would even go to the extent of suggesting that there is need
to provide a better working environment to women police than their male counterparts particularly
because women have to perform a highly demanding role of being an efficient police officer and also a
devoted wife and mother. There would be extraordinary demands on her patience, capabilities and
time on account of this. Initiatives have to be taken to harmonise all these unavoidable requirements
and create an atmosphere in which the women police can acquit
themselves creditably. Let me suggest certain actions for police management and personnel. These can be discussed:
a. We can consider increasing the number of women police personnel in India to be at least 10% of the
total police force by the year 2007.
b. Each State may organize multi-level gender sensitive training to both women and men as a part of
induction training to promote better understanding between men and women as a complimentary force
with a common objective.
c. Each State may consider provision of special facilities to women police personnel such as crèche in
the working place, accommodation closer to the place of work, maternity facilities and flexible working
hours as per their convenience wherever possible.
d. Institute a grievance handling systems in each establishment which can hear and provide immediate
solution to the problems faced by the women. Also the grievance officers can provide long term
systemic solutions for prevention of such problems in future.
e. Commanding officers of the Units and all senior officers should take particular care in ensuring
provision of equal opportunities for male and female personnel. They should always keep in mind that
there is a tendency to underestimate the potential of a women. They are capable of performing
challenging task on par with the male colleagues. Given a job they will always perform very well.
f. Institute a special reward system for women police officers, in addition to the existing incentive and
award system available for all police personnel irrespective of the gender.
g. Encourage women police personnel to actively participate in adventure sports such as mountaineering,
skiing, marathon along with their male colleagues. This will promote mutual appreciation among
men and women police personnel.
h. The government can constitute a Task Force in which few women police officers can be members for
recommending Policies regarding induction norms, training, deployment, provision of working environment,
transfers, career growth of women police personnel for implementation. This will enable availability
of a structured method for management of personnel in the police force.
Conclusion: Empowerment
When a child is empowered by the parents at various phases of growth, the child gets transformed into
a responsible citizen. When a teacher is empowered with knowledge and experience, good young
human beings with value systems emerge. When an individual or a team is empowered with technology,
transformation to higher potential for achievement is assured. When a leader of any village empowers
his or her people, leaders are born who can change the nation in multiple areas. When women are
empowered, society with stability gets assured. When the political leaders of the nation empower the
people through visionary policies, the prosperity of the nation is certain. When religions are empowered
and become spiritual force, peace and happiness will blossom in people's heart. Empowerment of
various layers of management structure is indeed the best instrument to maximize the performance of
a given fund to the developmental tasks. I am sure empowered women police officers will also play an
important role in providing us a secure and harmonious society.
My best wishes to all the women police personnel for success in their mission and I am sure their
exemplary performance motivate and inspire many women to join the police force.
May God bless you.
Thank
you Jai hind
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