AP govt creates parallel Mahila Police set up

The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday framed the AP Mahila Police (Subordinate Service) Rules, 2021, creating a parallel set up in the Police Department by organizing a separate cadre for women police.

Called the Mahila Police, the new cadre will be organized in five ranks like Mahila Police, Senior Mahila Police, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector and Inspector (Mahila Police), according to an order issued by in-charge Principal Secretary (Home) G Vijaya Kumar.

The job chart for the Mahila Police says educating and creating awareness among people on social issues and propagating government schemes would be their main role.

While the Mahila Police will be recruited directly by the respective district Superintendents of Police and Commissioners of Police, the other ranks will be on promotion based on qualification and eligibility during a particular selection year, the Government Order said.

A dress code, with a separate logo, has been prescribed for different ranks of the Mahila Police, with only khaki colour being common with the regular police.

The government has fixed a recognized graduate degree as the basic academic qualification for recruitment as Mahila Police and the maximum age limit has been set at 28 for general candidates.

The new set of rules was brought in in the backdrop of an ongoing litigation in the High Court challenging the designation of the 'Grama Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi/Ward Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi' as 'Mahila Police', treating them as equal to lady constables.

Close to 15,000 women were appointed by the district Collectors in the village and ward secretariats that were newly created by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in July 2019 and called women protection secretaries (WPS).

Last month, the government informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that it was withdrawing a GO designating the 'Grama Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi/Ward Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi' as 'Mahila Police', treating them as equal to lady constables.

Accordingly, in the new rules, the government completely avoided referring the Mahila Police as lady constables.

The new rules, the Government Order specified, were in supersession of all rules issued vide various orders in the years 2019 and 2021.

The 'Grama Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi/Ward Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsi’ recruited as per the 2019 rules have now been ''re-designated'' as Mahila Police, irrespective of their fulfilling the eligibility criteria, particularly in terms of academic qualification and physical parameters.

Henceforth, new recruits would have to undergo training for three months after submitting a security bond for Rs 5,000, stating they would “serve the Department after training for a minimum period of three years from the date of their actual appointment”.

According to the new job chart prescribe under a separate Government Order on Wednesday, the Mahila Police will function ''to curb violence against women and girls and report any untoward incident in the community''.

''They will strive to encourage the community members to be responsible for creating a safe environment for women and girls and children. They shall create awareness among the targeted beneficiaries, pregnant women, lactating mothers, children, etc. about various government programmes,'' the order said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)