Feminization of the Police Force in India: Evaluating the Access and Redressal in Cases of Sexual Violence Against Women

Indian criminal justice system has always been posed with complex implementation challenges about the substantive and procedural legal framework, wherein the interests of the survivors of sexual violence could be addressed in the best humanistic way possible. Despite several amendments in the Indian substantive and procedural penal laws in the last decade, the reality of increased incidents and proportionately low convictions remains unaltered. In a study conducted by the authors in 2020, the role of socioeconomic correlates in understanding the legal policies for curbing sexual assaults against women in India was analyzed (Tewari & Gautam, Vulnerability of women in contemporary times: A socio legal perspective. 2020). The study revealed the positive role of improved monitoring and surveillance in curbing sexual assaults, and it was concluded that the number of police personnel per lakh of population and the number of police personnel per 100 km2 impact the rates of rape in the country. Against the backdrop of the aforesaid finding, the present study analyzes the impacts of the female police officers in the police force as well as women help desks in the rape case reporting thereby understanding and evaluating the access and responsiveness of criminal justice administration toward the incidents of sexual assaults. One of the biggest efforts to feminize police force in India were setting up of Mahila Thanas in every district where women victims of violence can report incidents to women police officers. The study also evaluates the impact of establishment of all women police units (AWPUs) in states of India on the rape cases registered. It is found that increased feminization of the police force improves the reporting of incidents of gendered sexual violence faced by women. This addresses the problem of underreporting of such crimes and paves a long way in reaffirming the faith in criminal justice administration.