Kerala: First women's police station turns 50, but gender parity remains a dream

Fifty years after Kerala set up a pioneer women-only police station, experts and police personnel admit that there is a long way to go to achieve gender equality and empowerment.

It was then prime minister Indira Gandhi who opened the first women’s police station in Kozhikode city in 1973 along with then chief minister C Achutha Menon and state home minister K Karunakaran.

Kerala was then ruled by a coalition government that had both the Congress and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

At the station’s helm was Padmini Amma, who would go on to make history as the first female non-IPS Superintendent of Police. Her role as a sub-inspector in charge marked a significant milestone in law enforcement.

Remarkably, the first case recorded at the station was linked to the inauguration, as three children who attended the event went missing. The all-female investigative team located them the very same day, signifying a triumphant resolution to their inaugural case.

A mini revolution

According to Padmini Amma, who lives a retired life in Thiruvananthapuram, the opening of the all-women police station was a progressive and humane move. The intention was to make it easy for women who lacked educational empowerment to register their complaints.

Women have been part of India’s law enforcement since 1939. But this wasn’t instigated by a specific policy.

Instead, women were gradually included in the police force in response to the increasing number of female offenders and the growing incidence of crimes against women.

According to the book, Women Police in a Changing Society by Mangai Natarajan, a professor at The City University of New York, despite the early introduction of women into the police, the proportion of female officers in the Indian police force remained consistently low. Nevertheless, the number of female officers has seen a significant increase since 1990, mirroring a trend observed in other countries and aligning with the general growth in police force numbers.

Women in states

In Kerala and Maharashtra, women joined the police in 1939. Delhi and Gujarat followed suit in 1948. The last states to incorporate women officers were Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 1967 and 1973, respectively. But for most states, the establishment of Women’s Police Stations (WPS) did not directly follow the initial inclusion of women. Kerala, the first state to establish a WPS, did so 34 years after the initial inclusion of women in the police force.

Tamil Nadu, the state with the highest number of WPSs (some 40 per cent), had a 19-year gap between incorporating women and implementing WPS in 1992.

WPSs, often staffed by female officers specifically trained to address gender-based violence cases, are strategically located for a reason. They aim to reduce the barriers associated with reporting a crime by providing an environment where women can report incidents with reduced stigma related to gender-based crimes, decreased corruption, and a more welcoming atmosphere.

“When I assumed my position at this station three months ago, I was unaware of its significance. It felt like just another assignment. However, when I came to realize that I was the first directly recruited woman sub-inspector, and that this station was the first of its kind in Asia, it was a completely different experience,” said KK Thulasi, the current Station House Officer of the WPS in Kozhikode.

“I had the privilege of meeting Padmini Amma, the first SHO of this station. It’s an entirely unique experience here because everyone both the officers and complainants are women. The atmosphere is more welcoming, and there is a strong sense of camaraderie among us,” Thulasi told The Federal.

Women officers

Mangai Natarajan observes in her book that WPS is a form of policing that is widely used across the world and that typically involves the creation of police stations that employ only female officers specialized in handling crimes committed against women with a sensitive nature such as domestic violence, rape and other forms of gender-specific offenses.

As a follow-up, Kerala in 1996 introduced special cells in each district as women's cell, consisting of a minimum of a woman circle inspector, one sub-inspector, one head civil police officer, and four women civil police officers. The cell is composed of a Superintendent of Police (IPS) serving as the unit head.

It also includes a deputy superintendent of police, three women sub-inspectors, four women sub-inspectors, nine women civil police officers, one lower division clerk, one child welfare assistant and one typist.

The cell offers family counselling services to address family-related issues. This support is provided by trained family counsellors from the Department of Social Justice. Also, self-defence training, women's awareness classes, help to victims of crimes, and classes on getting statements from POCSO case victims, and counselling and legal advice in child abuse cases are done by the women’s cell.

The cell’s officials visit colonies wherever instances of atrocities are found and actions are taken to resolve or settle the disputes and thereby atrocities against women, family disputes and problems are minimized, claims the official website of Kerala Police.

Problems remain

According to the 2021 data collated by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, the number of policewomen in Kerala, including the armed police, has experienced a 42 per cent increase over six years, reaching its peak by 2018.

Furthermore, between 2017 and 2021, this figure saw a notable rise, bringing the total count to almost 10 per cent of the 57,819-strong force.

A 2021 study by Reach Alliance, a student-led, faculty-mentored multidisciplinary research initiative at University of Toronto, concluded that although WPSs have succeeded in increasing reporting rates, India’s criminal justice system has failed in substantially improving conditions for women.

The backlog in the policing and court systems overshadows the strides made by WPSs in increasing reporting rates since the majority of reported crimes fail to be investigated or resolved in a timely manner.

The lack of trust in the Indian justice system and the societal attitudes toward violence against women worsens attempts to shift to a more gender equitable future.

Until WPSs’ operations adapt to the realities of the larger justice system and societal underpinnings of gender-based violence, their goal of creating a safe space for women to report crime will remain unaccomplished.