No women PS in most districts

Women police officers complain of workplace discrimination

LAHORE:

There are less than a dozen police stations for women across Punjab, including only one in Lahore despite the rapidly increasing population of the provincial capital.

The need for enhancing the role of women officers to improve the police station culture has been stressed in several reports about reforms.

However, most districts in the province do not have a women’s police station.

The number of female police officers has increased in the last few years. They have been appointed as district police officers (DPOs) and station house officers (SHOs), but women are afraid to go to the police stations and explain their problems to male officials. The number of female officers is far lower when compared to their proportion in the population.

Commenting on the issue, Punjab Assembly Member Rabia Farooqi said female police officers were less likely to have a political affiliation and it was more difficult to bribe or influence them.

She said postings in the field should be given to female officers as much as possible.

A citizen said a Gender Crime Cell was set up to deal with rape and other crimes against women, but the number of female officers in the cell needed to be increased and its role expanded to every police station.

In Lahore, women police are playing a stronger and more prominent role. Women have also been posted as SHOs and on anti-riots, gender crime and investigation duties alongside men.

Women police officers said the presence of a female officer in a police station made women feel safe. They said women were involved as complainants, victims or suspects in a large number of cases and the police should have officers to deal with them at every level.

The representation of women in the police department is only 1%b and due to such low representation they face discrimination in professional matters. Women are worried that they will not be promoted and they will not be given important responsibilities and the reason of this is that their representation is very low. If their representation increases, they will be able to better voice their rights. Women police officers highlight their problems, saying they are discriminated against in the police department. Explaining this, they said that women police personnel are not given more important responsibilities than men and they have limited opportunities for promotion.

Fiza Mumtaz, a woman police officer, told The Express Tribune that the ratio of women population in Pakistan’s is around 51% while the ratio of women in police department was very low. “The recruitment of women in the police should be encouraged so that the problems faced by women could be solved by easily. There is only one woman police station in a big city like Lahore which is unable to solve women’s problems,” she said.

She said there was ample evidence to suggest that the presence of a female official goes a long way in making the justice system more accessible to women as compared to the traditional male-oriented police stations where most women do not feel comfortable and safe.

In Iran, the proportion of women officials in the police is 4% and they serve mostly in the areas related to women and children. Some women officials complained that their representation in the department was low and they also faced discrimination in professional matters. They feel that they are less likely to be promoted or given important responsibilities.

Pakistan’s first women police station was inaugurated by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on January 25, 1994. Pakistan has improved to some degree in setting up women police stations, creating dedicated front desks and recruiting and placing female police officials in the force.

Women rights activists see this as an encouraging development in the context of gender rights in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2020.