New Delhi: The proportion of women in the Indian police forces is merely 7.2 per cent and the reason behind that is wrong social perception, IPS officer Rema Rajeshwari said Friday.
“The portrayal of female police officers is not very realistic (in media). I don’t have to always be aggressive, violent and angry,” she said. “The perception of families is that it is not a very safe job and we are not doing enough to do away with the stereotypical projection of the job. This is one of the major causes why not many women are joining the forces.”
Rajeshwari was in conversation with Rohini Swamy, associate editor at ThePrint, at the first edition of the second season of Democracy Wall.
ThePrint’s Democracy Wall is a free-speech campus initiative. The latest edition was held at the CMR College of Engineering & Technology in Hyderabad. Lok Sabha MP & AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, rapper Sofia Ashraf and actor Nimrat Kaur were the other participants at the event.
Rajeshwari highlighted that a large part of her work involved community outreach, administrative and investigative work. She also spoke about how states need to provide legislative and affirmative action to encourage women to join the Indian Police Service (IPS).
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On her journey
Rema Rajeshwari, the district police chief of Telangana’s Mahbubnagar, spoke about her journey to become an IPS officer.
“I come from a small town of Munnar in Kerala and I am the first female IPS officer from that place,” she said, adding that her parents were not in favour of her becoming an IPS officer.
Rema completed a degree in software engineering and got married before eventually pursuing her dream.
“I quit my job and went to Delhi all by myself. Until 2005, I didn’t speak a word of English or Hindi. I taught myself English and Hindi and then Punjabi. Today, I can speak and write six languages,” she said.
She finally the Union Public Service Commission’s civil services exam in 2008.
‘Deeply emotional case’
Rema Rajeshwari said the most challenging case in her career was that of a serial child abuser.
In the case, young tribal children aged 8-16 years were sexually abused over a period of six months by their tutor in a rehabilitation home. Rajeshwari said it was hard to record the statements of the children in detail to ensure a conviction.
“This case was deeply emotional for me and my entire team worked for days together to build a case and he finally got a life conviction.”
The IPS officer also talked about an initiative, ‘SHE-Teams’, taken by the Telangana police to deal with victims of violence, especially eve-teasing and cyber-bullying, among other issues.
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