Poor work hours hit cops of both sexes equally hard

Vadodara: There is no sex discrimination at least in Gujarat police department where women and men are nearly on par and tasked as equals, both on field and in-house.
The Status of Policing in India Report 2019 shows meagre one percent to three percent differences in responses regarding tasks assigned to male and female cops. Like their male counterparts, even women cops have to stay back and work after their allotted duty hours. The report has been prepared by Common Cause and Lokniti programme of New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).
In the study 47% women respondents said they have to stay back many times at work after their duty hours while 20% said they are asked to do so only sometimes. The scenario of holidays for women cops is very similar to their male countrparts with 65% policewomen complaining that they do not get any weekly offs. The state average of cops claiming that they do not get weekly offs is 70%.
Gujarat’s record is quite poor when it comes to imparting training on sensitization towards women police personnel.
While majority of cops are not imparted gender training on regular basis, one in every four male police personnel (24%) in the state was never being trained on gender sensitisation, which is the second worst in the country.
With such deplorable working conditions, half of the women cops in the state have opined that they are willing to give up the profession and go for another if the salary and perks match.
The only positive aspect for policewomen of Gujarat is that most enjoy separate toilet facilities in their police stations or jurisdiction.
Around 94% of women cops in the state have claimed to have separate toilets, which many of their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh (58%), Karnataka (76%), Andhra Pradesh (81%) and Maharashtra (87%) are not entitled to.