By Express News Service

KOCHI: Women’s rights, equality and empowerment are now the keywords in Kerala. But when it comes to providing better opportunity for women in the state police force, Kerala is far behind its neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, which has 15.97 per cent women in the force, compared to 6.32 per cent in Kerala.

Above all, the state has not yet approved any percentage for reservation for women in the force while many other states like Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have approved 33 per cent reservation for women.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data, of the actual strength of 62,476 police personnel in Kerala police, as on January 1, 2017, only 3,949 were women police personnel.

The figures also show the percentage of women in Kerala has increased from 5.43 per cent in 2016 to 6.32 per cent in 2017. A major achievement for the state in 2018 was the raising of the first all-women battalion with 578 members on August 1, 2018.

“We don’t have any specific percentage of reservation for women in the state police force, but we have been considerably increasing the number of women recruits in the force in the past two years. The state police have decided to give equal opportunity for women in the force,” said State Police Chief Loknath Behera.

As per the data, 21 states, including union territories, have accorded over 30 per cent reservation for women in the respective state police force, taking into consideration an advisory issued by the Union Government.

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