In a big boost to the understaffed Bihar Police, 1582 sub-inspectors, of them 596 women, were inducted into the force on Thursday at the passing out parade at Bihar Police Academy at Rajgir in Nalanda, where chief minister Nitish Kumar was the chief guest.
“We provided two vehicles to each of the police stations and worked to improve the availability of weapons. We also started recruitment of policemen in the light of the high population of the state,” Nitish said.
It was like a dream come true for Sudha Kumari, a postgraduate in English from Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, when she was inducted into the Bihar Police as a sub-inspector after the passing out parade on Thursday. She was among the 596 women out of a total 1,586 sub-inspectors who were inducted into the Bihar Police after completion of their rigorous training at the Bihar Police Academy, Rajgir.
Coming from a family of Army men, Sudha said the sense of security for women and zeal to serve the people inspired her to join the police force. “There was a sense of discipline in the family as my father and two elder brothers were in the Indian Army,” she said.
Congratulating the new officers and pointing out the high number of women sub-inspectors to pass out in this batch, Nitish asserted that it was not an ordinary achievement.
“Having 596 women police officers passing out among the sub-inspectors today is not an ordinary thing. We started with reserving 50 per cent seats in panchayati raj institutions for women and worked further for their education, welfare and development. It has started paying now,” Nitish said at the passing out parade.
The chief minister also said that Bihar has paid special attention to recruiting women in the police force, and no other state in the country has them in such large numbers.
Referring to other initiatives takes by the state government for women empowerment, the CM said, “We have been working for progress of women ever since we were given the opportunity to work in the state. We provided 50% reservation to women in panchayati raj institutions. The government also introduced 35% women reservation in police services in 2013 and in all government services in 2015,” Nitish said.
