KARACHI: The Sindh police are set to appoint more than 1,600 policewomen — said to be the highest number of recruitment of female personnel in one go in the history of the law enforcement agency — in a move to enhance the ratio of women members in the force, which remained on the lower side despite repeated measures in recent years by the authorities, officials and sources said on Saturday.

They said under the defined rules and process, the Sindh police had invited applications from interested candidates having domicile of the respective districts of the province for the 1,641 posts of women constables with BPS-5 in the force. The announcement, they said, received a good response from young women and a total of 3,044 applicants applied for jobs in the force even from the remote districts of Sindh.

“The Sindh police off and on recruit women in the force in line with the provincial government policy and a recruitment plan which is designed at the beginning of the financial year,” said a source citing the plan for the current fiscal. “In line with the same plan, the force announced recruitment of some 1,641 women constables but it’s the highest number of jobs so far the force is going to offer to Sindh women in one go. So this batch would carry the highest number of women constables to be inducted in the police force after training. A total of 3,044 women have applied for becoming constables in the force and the process for their recruitment has been started which would lead to final selection of 1,641 women.”

Gilgit-Baltistan has the highest percentage of women police personnel in the country

He compared the fresh recruitment of women constables with the 2017 move of the Sindh police when the law enforcement agency for the first time ever in the history of the province, inducted more than 40 women in the Counter-Terrorism Department and Rapid Response Force of the force to take up the challenge of combat operations and intelligence gathering. Not only women from major cities but, he said, also from rural backgrounds were selected after various tests, interviews and medical examination, who were later trained by the Pakistan Army.

The ratio of women in the police remains below two per cent though the country’s legislatures adopted several laws in recent years for the protection of women’s rights. According to the National Police Bureau, of 391,364 police personnel across the country, only 5,731 are women.

The NPB data shows that at 3.4pc, Gilgit-Baltistan boasts the highest percentage of policewomen when compared to other regions and provinces. In one of the provinces, the percentage of women in the police force is as low as 0.48pc.

The Sindh government announced an over nine per cent increase in the budget for security in the province, fixing it at Rs109.788 billion for fiscal 2019-20 compared to Rs100.483bn allocated in the last fiscal with a promise to recruit 3,000 police personnel, including women, in the law enforcement agency.

“Among the total 3,044 applicants for the fresh recruitment, 589 applied from different districts of Karachi while 367 came up with interest from Sukkur Range of the police organisational structure,” he said. “The number of applicants from Hyderabad Range stood the highest with 1,739 applicants as it consists of districts of Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Dadu, Jamshoro, Thatta and Sujawal. Similarly 349 applications were received from the Larkana Range of the Sindh police.”

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2020