Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday said that creches will be set up at district levels for women police personnel across the country in a bid to help them overcome challenges they face at work.
The proposal was mooted at an event organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development to mark International Women’s Day.
“There needs to be a focus on improving the capabilities of women in the police force. One of the greatest challenges for women in the police force is that they can’t afford to look weak, not to the society or the establishment. There are certain challenges they face themselves but they don’t express them so that it doesn’t affect their evaluation, and their male colleagues don’t adjudge them as inferior. They never say that there are creches for children of other working women, but not for their children. The Ministry of Women and Child Development would like to provide a special creche facility at the district level for our police personnel across the country,” Minister Irani said during her address.
According to the Labour Code on Social Security, 2020, every establishment with 50 employees should have a creche facility within a distance prescribed by the Central government. The employer must also allow four visits a day to the creche by the woman, which will also include intervals of rest such as two nursing breaks allowed to her until a child turns 15 months old. But the rules under the law which were passed in September 2020, are yet to be notified, and therefore, the earlier law known as the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which incorporated the same provisions through an amendment in 2017 continues to be in force.
In 2013, the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women in its 21st report on “Working Conditions of Women in Police Force “strongly” recommended that the government ensure adequate toilets and allocate additional funds for them. It also pulled up the government for failing to utilise funds allocated for setting up of creches and urged it to assign the issue “high priority” as well as formulate year-wise targets for establishing them.
The Indian police have failed to attract women and their representation is at an abysmal 10%, according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development. However, due to recent policy initiatives such as the Ministry of Home Affairs’ advisories to States in 2009 to achieve the target of 33% representation of women in police, their strength has doubled from 4% in 2010.
“Having access to professionally run crèche facilities will go a long way in attracting women talent to policing as a career. It will also enable women already in service to take up duties that involve constant movement or being away at nights, or postings away from homes more confidently. This, in turn, will strengthen their promotion prospects and contribute to improved diversity at leadership levels,” says Devyani Shrivastava, Head, Police Reforms at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
Significantly, the emphasis on ramping up women’s police strength sprung from the need to provide a more supportive environment for women and children who come in contact with the criminal justice system.
“Changes in criminal law since 2009 have slowly expanded the ambit of policing functions that only women personnel are required to perform. These include registering the complaint of a woman survivor alleging select gender-based offences under the IPC, recording their statements that become part of the investigation, and facilitating the medical examination of a rape survivor upon her consent within 24 hours of receiving information among other functions,” elucidates Ms. Shrivastava
