Chandigarh: Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav, a 1992-bath IPS officer from the Punjab-cadre, has called for greater integration of women police personnel into core operational responsibilities, including crime prevention and detection, intelligence and law-and-order duties, saying women officers should move beyond roles traditionally associated with handling women-specific issues.
Yadav made the remarks while inaugurating the third-round training programme under the ‘Mainstreaming of Women in Punjab Police’ gender-sensitisation project at the Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur. The initiative seeks to strengthen gender-sensitive policing and assess the impact of training on police personnel across the state.
Women Make Up 11.5% of Punjab Police
According to Yadav, women currently account for around 11.5% of the Punjab Police force, or approximately 9,000 personnel.
He attributed the increasing representation partly to the state’s 33% reservation for women in police recruitment, while stressing that greater representation should also translate into broader professional opportunities.
“We want to change the culture of the organisation where both men and women can serve together as a team.”
The DGP emphasised that the objective is to build a police force where women officers participate across functions rather than being restricted to specific categories of duties.
Women Cops Urged to Take Up Core Policing Roles
Yadav said women police personnel should be given opportunities to work in areas traditionally viewed as male-dominated.
Roles highlighted for greater participation:
- Crime prevention and detection
- Intelligence
- Law and order
- Operations involving complex criminal cases
- Other core policing responsibilities
“Women should not be confined only to routine duties. They should be assigned operational roles in dealing with crimes, intelligence and law & order.”
The broader mainstreaming project also addresses gender stereotypes within the police force and seeks to expand the professional role of women officers. Earlier phases of the initiative identified areas such as crime, gangsters, drug networks and terrorism as core policing functions where women officers should have greater participation.
2,000 Police Officials to Receive Gender-Sensitive Training
The programme is designed as an impact-assessment exercise covering 384 police stations across Punjab.
Of these:
- 288 police stations are part of the training intervention.
- 96 police stations serve as a control group without the training.
- Around 2,000 police officials are expected to be trained.
The programme uses training and assessment to examine whether greater gender sensitivity can influence perceptions of women’s roles within the police organisation.
Focus on Citizen-Centric Policing
Yadav also stressed that gender sensitivity should extend beyond interactions with women complainants.
He urged police personnel to adopt a citizen-centric approach while dealing with everyone who approaches police stations with grievances.
The initiative therefore seeks to combine greater participation of women in operational policing with improved sensitivity and professionalism in police-public interactions.
Punjab’s Women Police Mainstreaming Project
The wider ‘Mainstreaming of Women Police’ project was launched to assess and strengthen the integration of women police personnel across Punjab.
The programme involves the Punjab Police’s Community Affairs Division, the Punjab Police Academy and external partners. The project also uses an evidence-based assessment model to measure changes in attitudes towards women in policing.
The initiative focuses on
- Gender sensitisation
- Mainstreaming women officers
- Challenging gender stereotypes
- Strengthening professional development
- Citizen-centric policing
- Building a more inclusive police organisation
DGP Launches Digital Verification Facility
During the programme, Yadav also launched an online digital verification facility on the Saanjh platform for the Ministry of Defence.
According to the report, the facility is intended to speed up verification of newly recruited defence personnel, adding another technology-driven component to Punjab Police’s citizen and institutional services.
Senior Trainers Join the Initiative
The training programme also featured Meera Chadha Borwankar, retired DGP of Maharashtra cadre, and RC Singh, retired DGP of Punjab cadre, as lead trainers.
The latest round builds on the broader training architecture developed for the women-police mainstreaming project, which has been designed to reach police personnel at the station level across Punjab.
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