As per a June 2018 study, it has been found that the establishment of all-woman police stations in India has led to 22% increase in reporting of crimes of violence committed against women as they find female officers more approachable.

“This, in turn, led to a rise in arrests of crimes whose reports increased,” said researchers Sofia Amaral and Sonia Bhalotra of the University of Essex in the UK, and Nishith Prakash from the University of Connecticut, US.

As per statistics, every two hours a woman in India complains of police discouraging her from filing a report, turning away or harassing her. “In WPS [all-woman police stations], officers are less likely to exhibit skewed gender norms about the roles of women or tolerance of violence committed against them, the recording and subsequent filling of FIR’s increased,” Amaral and her co-authors said.

Reporting of cases of female kidnappings and domestic violence has increased to 22.2% and 21.7%, respectively, female abductions saw a 10.85% increase.

“…the reform could have had a larger impact in crimes with a lower cost of reporting in comparison to others whose emotional and physical costs are potentially higher as is the case of rapes,” the study stated. “Reporting incentives are likely to matter more among crimes with a medium range of severity and not all forms of crime against women.”

These positive changes are the result of the establishment of more all-female police stations, and employment of more women in the police force. As per data analysis, it was found that the number of women among India’s police personnel jumped up from just under 123,000 to over 140,000 between 2015 and 2016.

H/T: Scroll