Female police personnel toil without basic facilities in the All Women Police Stations.
What’s it about? Most of the AWPSs in the city – Valasaravakkam, SRMC, Selaiyur and Vandalur – lack necessities such as enough space allocation in the building, resting rooms, beds, and printers. Located inside multi-storied buildings, they present a host of problems to both female police officers and victims.
- In the AWPSs without resting rooms, police officers are compelled to conduct inquiries in uniform even when the law mandates wearing plain clothes during such processes. Without a bed, the female personnel has no place to rest after working long hours.
- The Royapuram AWPS is located in an old, congested, and leaky building, which reduces the police station’s approachability to victims.
Bane of bandobast: Apart from infrastructural afflictions, female police officers are also pulled into bandobast duties despite several DGPs promising them respite from those. Bandobast duties involve long duty hours, with no food or toilet facilities. Short-staffed AWPSs see victims waiting for hours for a senior police officer.