The national capital may have acquired the dubious distinction of being the rape capital of the world, but the powers that be both in the home ministry as well as the Delhi police sure seem to be turning a blind eye towards the acute shortage of women constables and officers within the Delhi police........
Official figures put out recently by the above mentioned police force sources peg the present shortage of both women beat constables as well as other ranks to be in the vicinity of 2,500 or so and what is even more appalling is the fact that the powers that be are doing precious little to address the present situation........
Long hours of work, quirky superiors and unsympathetic male colleagues, inadequate compensation for long hours of work rendered selflessly and a topsy turvy and less than ideal living conditions are the primary or main factors that inhibit or forbid other women from joining this male dominated force........
Maya a lady police officer who has been in khakhi for more than the last decade and a half makes a few telling points: " I leave my house at precisely 8 a.m. every morning but do not have the faintest inclination about when my day will end, my day stretches up to 12 hours a day at a minimum and can go up to 18 or 20 hours depending on emergent situations".........
"And even after all the sacrifices and selfless service rendered we get paid a pittance, weekly offs and leaves are a rarity and come about depending on the whims and fancies of our superior officers, I live in a two room accommodation in the largely lower middle class locality of Azadpur and my three daughters who are rapidly growing up as well as husband look upon me as a stranger and necessary hazard that they have to put up with at the best of times"........
On being asked whether she would encourage and motivate her daughters into joining the very same police force, Maya's candid answer is "certainly not as long as the same service conditions persist as the sexist remarks and expletive laden asides that I am subjected to by male colleagues most of the time have become second nature to me, but i would certainly not want to subject my daughters to the same mental pressure and agony as they certainly don't deserve to be exposed to the same".........
Their male counterparts are full of praise for their dedication and commitment to service as long as the recorders and cameras are switched on, but their true form emerges as soon as the same are turned off and conversations between them refer to their female colleagues as a necessary evil to be put up with and a drain on the already scarce resources of the Delhi police.........
As Maya and her other female colleagues put it "our male colleagues will never understand what we go through on a daily basis unless they begin living our lives and subjecting themselves to the struggle that we undergo on a daily basis as balancing roles between the police station and two room barsaati's that most of us call home is tenuous at best"..........
One does remember both the Delhi police commissioner as well as his deputy making lofty claims about initiating gender sensitisation classes on an emergency basis and also promising clear results on the same in a matter of weeks if not months, one wonders what happened to those claims, were they just statements made to please Delhiites in the wake of the horrific events that unfolded in the national capital of that cold wintry night of December 16.........
Or then was there any intention of honouring these statements and self imposed deadlines at all, all said and done, the Delhi police's image has surely taken a beating and reached rock bottom and things can only get better from here on and show a drastic improvement if the Delhi Police intends to live up to it's motto of being by the side of Delhiites and remaining steadfast by them in their moment of need
Official figures put out recently by the above mentioned police force sources peg the present shortage of both women beat constables as well as other ranks to be in the vicinity of 2,500 or so and what is even more appalling is the fact that the powers that be are doing precious little to address the present situation........
Long hours of work, quirky superiors and unsympathetic male colleagues, inadequate compensation for long hours of work rendered selflessly and a topsy turvy and less than ideal living conditions are the primary or main factors that inhibit or forbid other women from joining this male dominated force........
Maya a lady police officer who has been in khakhi for more than the last decade and a half makes a few telling points: " I leave my house at precisely 8 a.m. every morning but do not have the faintest inclination about when my day will end, my day stretches up to 12 hours a day at a minimum and can go up to 18 or 20 hours depending on emergent situations".........
"And even after all the sacrifices and selfless service rendered we get paid a pittance, weekly offs and leaves are a rarity and come about depending on the whims and fancies of our superior officers, I live in a two room accommodation in the largely lower middle class locality of Azadpur and my three daughters who are rapidly growing up as well as husband look upon me as a stranger and necessary hazard that they have to put up with at the best of times"........
On being asked whether she would encourage and motivate her daughters into joining the very same police force, Maya's candid answer is "certainly not as long as the same service conditions persist as the sexist remarks and expletive laden asides that I am subjected to by male colleagues most of the time have become second nature to me, but i would certainly not want to subject my daughters to the same mental pressure and agony as they certainly don't deserve to be exposed to the same".........
Their male counterparts are full of praise for their dedication and commitment to service as long as the recorders and cameras are switched on, but their true form emerges as soon as the same are turned off and conversations between them refer to their female colleagues as a necessary evil to be put up with and a drain on the already scarce resources of the Delhi police.........
As Maya and her other female colleagues put it "our male colleagues will never understand what we go through on a daily basis unless they begin living our lives and subjecting themselves to the struggle that we undergo on a daily basis as balancing roles between the police station and two room barsaati's that most of us call home is tenuous at best"..........
One does remember both the Delhi police commissioner as well as his deputy making lofty claims about initiating gender sensitisation classes on an emergency basis and also promising clear results on the same in a matter of weeks if not months, one wonders what happened to those claims, were they just statements made to please Delhiites in the wake of the horrific events that unfolded in the national capital of that cold wintry night of December 16.........
Or then was there any intention of honouring these statements and self imposed deadlines at all, all said and done, the Delhi police's image has surely taken a beating and reached rock bottom and things can only get better from here on and show a drastic improvement if the Delhi Police intends to live up to it's motto of being by the side of Delhiites and remaining steadfast by them in their moment of need
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