- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) may freeze state police modernization funds if women are not given their due share.
- MHA has asked all states to have 33% women reservation in the Police force, which currently no state has.
- Women Empowerment is not a western concept, Ardha-Nareshwar ( Half Shiv-Half Shakti) shows the world is incomplete without Nari Shakti.
MHA Guidelines
MHA is planning a strict 33% reservation for women in the Police force, failing which the ministry may freeze the allotted Modernization of State Police Force fund (MPF). According to Dainik Bhaskar, the ministry is tightening the rules of the MPF Scheme. Some internal sources of the ministry claim that a clause of 33% women in state police will be the minimum criteria to get the allotted amount otherwise it will be frozen.
According to the latest data available no states currently have 33% women in their police force. According to the Hindu, only 12% of Police forces comprise Women in India and the data is scarier at the higher level with a meager 8.72%. All the states have aimed for a certain level of women reservation from 10% to 33% with no success at all. The best women police force’s strength so far is 25% in Bihar and the UT of J&K has negligible women force at 3.3%.
Read More: Police Force has long been used as private militias by state governments. Amit Shah is changing that
The Centre had given a green signal for the modernization of police forces and approved ₹26275 crores for the modernization plan in February this year. MPF is an umbrella scheme for this purpose and has been extended for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The Centre has shared the internal distribution of this amount, ₹18000 crores will be used especially in the Jammu& Kashmir, North-East regions, and Left-wing Extremism affected (LWE) areas.
The ‘National Policy and Action Plan’ for combating LWE have been successful in reducing extremism-affected areas and to continue the progress six LWE related schemes had been allotted an outlay of ₹ 8689 crores.
Steps for Police Modernization
The Centre has been taking many steps for modernizing the police force and the Home minister in the house while passing the ‘Criminal Identification Bill’ talked about all such steps. A centralized Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) has been set up to store and track all FIRs registered in 16000+ Police stations in India and the data will be analyzed to track the patterns and update police about the same. A National Forensic Science University has been established in Gujarat and 6 Campuses are planned to train manpower in the science of Forensics. This will improve Crime-solving rates which are very low compared to some developed nations.
Read More: Criminals will have no respite under the Criminal Procedure Identification Bill 2022
Criminals have been changing their ways and hence a Modus Operandi Bureau (MOB) will have a separate study on 100+ Modus Operandi of criminals and keep the police force two steps ahead of criminals. The Home Minister also informed that they have sought suggestions from all MPs to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) that are of the Colonial era.
The Women Empowerment Push
It’s sad to see that Indian civilization where any worship is incomplete without the women of the house has been deprived of their fair share. There were certain glass ceilings that had snatched from them, their rights and privileges. The Nari Shakti is off-late getting it, be it in the NDA, corporate world, political decision making, or the police forces. The Central government is making women the financial decision-maker and encouraging things like house registration in the name of women and many other women-centric schemes for their empowerment.
Read More: Hinduism: The true essence of women empowerment
It is good to see that the government is focused on police modernization to improve crime-solving rates and will make it compulsory for the states to have women involved in this step. This MHA push will be a major step in women’s empowerment and gives a clear statement that nations’ security and police modernization is incomplete without the appropriate participation of the Nari shakti.
