Hyderabad: The Telangana state police department has 5,349 women personnel in various ranks, which is 8.53 per cent of the total strength of the state police force. Telangana state has been claiming to be implementing 33.3 per cent reservation for women in direct recruitment, but the women strength remains very less, even less than the national average of women personnel, which is at around 11 per cent. The police department has a sanctioned strength of 82,617 and actual strength is 62,731, which has a vacancy of 19,886
States like Uttar Pradesh (33,425), Maharashtra (30,432), Tamil Nadu (22,547), Bihar (19,790) and Andhra Pradesh (19,299) have more women police personnel, but in terms of their share in the total force in their respective states, Andhra Pradesh (21.76 per cent) stands top, followed by Chandigarh (21.60), Bihar (21.21), Tamil Nadu (19.10) and Maharashtra (17.84) respectively.
In terms of total strength of women personnel, Telangana state stands in the thirteenth position and in terms of their share in the force it falls behind several other states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Goa, etc.,
The Union home ministry told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the state governments and Union Territory (UT) administrations are responsible for recruiting more women police personnel including improvement of gender balance. The Centre has been issuing advisories to all states and UTs to increase the representation of women police to 33 per cent of the total strength and have also requested them to create additional posts for women by converting vacant posts.
