International Women's Day brought cheers for around 45 women sub-inspectors of Delhi Police as they were promoted to the rank of inspector and will now be posted in active duty at police stations to ensure women security in the national capital.
The promotions came as a big relief for the officers as many of them have been waiting for nearly 20 years.
"Although promotion is a routine administrative aspect, it is indeed a happy coincidence that around 45 women sub-inspectors who have been at this rank since the last 20 years has been promoted on International Women's Day.
"We will post them to police stations or those units where there is a great need for female police personnel, so that they can help eradicate crime against women in the city," Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi told reporters here today.
Explaining the possible advantages of having women officers at police stations, Bassi said it will ensure that police's efforts in ridding the city of crime against women are implemented on the ground.
"These women officers will also be helping those women who have come to make complaints at police stations. They will also handle heinous crimes committed against women and maintain dialogue with womenfolk in their respective area to nip any atrocity toward them in the bud," he said.
Bassi also emphasised on the need of teaching self defence techniques to women so that the physical capacity gap between them and men can be bridged.
"We want to provide a 15-day self-defence orientation programme to girls. We want self-defence to be part of girl's curriculum since early childhood so that by the time she becomes 15-year-old, when she becomes vulnerable to misdemeanours, she can fight back. We have set a target of imparting such training to one lakh girls this year... Till March 8, we have trained nearly 26,000 girls," he said.
After the December 16, 2012 incident, we have ensured that a police station has 10-15 female personnel, as well as a women's help desk, which is open 24x7, 365 days a year, he added.
