Women police officers urged to tread pioneers’ path

Hyderabad: The International Women in Law Enforcement Conference, the first-of-its-kind to be held to India, started on Tuesday with Aruna Bahuguna, Director, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), urging all women officers to build on breakthroughs achieved by women pioneers and exhorted them to "follow in their footsteps."

• SVPNPA, Charles Sturt University jointly organise session S More representation of women in higher ranks called for

In her inaugural address, she emphasised that the world has shrunk into a global village, and crime and terrorism sweep across continents and oceans. “Women law enforcers should join hands to fight crime, be it in the form of terrorism, technology or radicalization,” she said.

Recognising the growing expectation from women police officers and the need for greater professionalism, the three-day conference was jointly organised by SVPNPA and Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia. Professor Tracey Green, from CSU stressed that this was a unique opportunity for networking at every level from global, regional to national scale on many key aspects of policing from organised crime, border security, terrorism and radicalisation and counter radicalisation.

Chris Elstoft, Deputy High Commissioner, Australian High Commission, in his address, dwelt on the ever-growing policing relationship between Australia and India. Speaking about the long-standing relationship between Australia and India, he stated that, "We have been collaborating and working on a range of transactional issues related to money laundering and counter terrorism to name a few, and the International Women in Law Enforcement Conference is yet another milestone that we have achieved coalescing the issue of women policing and gender equality."

In the opening plenary, Dr Saskia Hufnagel, Queen Mary University London, UK, while sharing her findings on the role played by women officers from international to country level and looked at how they dealt with the male-dominated environment and the ‘old-boys-network’, made it clear that gender disparity in the police force was a worldwide phenomena with some countries such as Australia, South Africa, Estonia and Belgium having higher number of women police officers and faring better than others. "It is not enough to improve the numbers of women in police force, what we need to do is to ensure that women make it to the higher ranks," she asserted, according to the statement.