A recent study shows that the police forces of India’s States and Union Territories have grown by 32% between 2010 and 2020, but the share of women is only a meager 10.5% as against the desired 33%. The share of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) has marginally increased respectively from 12.6% and 10.6% to 15.2% and11.7%. The Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have registered a stronger representation from 20.8% in 2010 to 28.8% in 2020. The share of women officers stands at 8.2%.
Kerala police has 3% women officers, and West Bengal has 4.2%. Tamil Nadu and Mizoram, both have the highest share of women officers at 20.2 %.
Between 2010 and 2020, total police numbers have increased from 15.6 lakhs to 20.7 lakhs. However, vacancies in constabulary and officer ranks have remained stagnant. In 2020, overall vacancies are at 21.4%; with officer vacancies, at 32.2% and constabulary, at 20%. Overall vacancies are highest in Bihar (41.8%) and lowest in Uttarakhand (6.8%).
The findings are from the India Justice Report’s (IJR) analysis of the latest Data on Police Organisations (DoPO) Report 2021. The DoPO is published periodically by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, an entity of the Government of India.
