She spends the whole day toiling under the hot sun, but doesn’t dare quench her thirst. With no restroom facilities to make use of, a female traffic constable in the country says she would rather go thirsty than struggle to find a place to relieve herself. It may be shocking, but lack of toilets and sexual harassment are two major issues hampering the lives of policewomen in India, according to a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI).
While men and women in the police force have always been held to different standards and men have benefited more in terms of promotions and postings, these recent findings show the inefficiencies in the system.
Despite the fact that the Government of India issued guidelines first in February 2013 and then in May 2014 stating that police stations should mandatorily have creches and toilets, it doesn’t seem to have been implemented. The CHRI report titled 'Rough Roads to Equality' (conducted in police departments in Kerala, Haryana, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Jharkhand) stated that in many places where toilets were available, they were badly maintained. If women were part of the traffic department, it became all the more difficult for them, as public restrooms are not widely prevalent. In fact, one police constable in Rajasthan revealed that she didn't drink water even when it was very hot, to get around the issue. While men also had to deal with these conditions, the outdoors was an option available to them.
The report highlighted that sexual harassment also existed in the police force. Some of the women whom the CHRI spoke to – surprisingly - didn’t know they could complain about sexual harassment. This was possibly because they weren’t aware nor educated on what measures they could take. Thus, sexual harassment went largely unreported in the police force, said the CHRI report.
The khaki uniform the policewomen wore was more than just a uniform for them – not only did it give them strength, confidence and respect, the women felt a lot of pride in wearing it as well, stated the report. But the male culture in the police force was an area of concern. Allocation of duties and promotions and postings were seen to be biased and apparently women had to work twice as much as men to prove their worth in the police force.
