Miranda Ingtipi, DSP, Panbazar division, on duty in Guwahati. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Even as toasts are raised and platitudes paid on the occasion of International Women?s Day celebrated on March 8, Violet Baruah, superintendent of police (SP), Goalpara, was busy doing her rounds and attending to her policing duties.

Baruah is a trend-setter of sorts. After being pained by the atrocities on women around her, she chose this profession to register her protest. She belongs to the first batch of women officers in the Assam Police Service (APS) in 1992. She is also the only woman police officer serving in the SP rank in Assam at present. ?Someone has to break the ice. I am hopeful that more and more women will join the force,? she says.

Baruah feels that it?s very important to be ?mentally fit? as one is invariably surrounded by male policemen most of the time. ?One has to be prepared, for instance, in any kind of an insurgency operation in a jungle. There will be nobody to accompany you to the toilet,? she says. In fact, when she joined the services, she was already married with a two-and-a-half year old daughter. ?My family really encouraged me and I could spend one year out of home during the training period.?

Baruah also feels that ?policing has been regarded as a man?s profession for a long time and this is a fallacy. I think policewomen offer a more palatable image to the public. They provide a soft side to a hard profession.? She recalls an incident during an anti-insurgency operation when a hardcore militant with sophisticated weapons surrendered as soon as he saw her. ?Maybe, he felt that he was safer in my hands,? she adds. She now plans to write a book on her never-ending interesting experiences.

A tough yet amiable police officer, Miranda K. Ingtipi, 34, was already a mother of two teenagers when she joined the Assam Police Service (APS) in 2002. The amiable police officer has found a new meaning in life after she joined the force. ?I had never thought that I would join the police force. I drifted into this profession after I cleared the APS examination. Maybe god had planned this for me,? she says. In fact, this graduate in English did exemplary things while in training, like bagging the best probationer and best rider award. She smiles, ?I also did well in shooting. I am grateful to my seniors who provided me with valuable guidance.? When asked about how a woman police officer can make a difference in the lives of ordinary women, Ingtipi replies, ?I think we can make a difference in everybody?s life. The very presence of a woman makes a place more approachable and homely. A woman can tell me about things in her life that she can never tell a male police officer.?

She finds her job very challenging and enjoys every minute of it. She was first posted as assistant commandant with the first Assam Police Task Force, Dakurvita, Goalpara, then as deputy superintendent of police (DSP, headquarters), Guwahati. She is at present serving as DSP (Panbazar division) in Guwahati.

?My service in the police force has indeed changed my family life. My husband stays in Jorhat and my sons stay with me. But my husband can afford to spend half the year with us considering the nature of his business,? she adds.

There was a time when policewomen belonged in the realm of fiction ? and perhaps in the odd top spot. That is because strength, courage and a certain mental acuity were deemed exclusively male police attributes. Over the last few years, the thinking has altered and they have ceased to separate the boys from the girls in the force. And even placed women in positions where they can lead from the front. However, the scene still remains dismal in Assam, as out of the total strength of 67,000 in the police force, only 461 are women.

There are only 14 women police officers in the rank of DSP and above and only one in the rank of SP. There are as many as four additional SPs, nine DSPs, three inspectors, 27 sub-inspectors, 45 head constables and lance naiks and 372 constables in the armed and unarmed sections.

In a bid to increase the number of women in the police force, the Assam government in 2004 had decided to recruit a minimum of 10 per cent women up to the sub-inspector level out of the earmarked appointments. And in order to address the problems faced by women in the police force, a state-level committee was set up in 2004. This committee has been set up as part of a scheme of the National Forum for Women in Police according to the directives of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, New Delhi. Dilip Borah, inspector general of police (IGP), administration, who is also the chairperson of the committee, says, ?We sit quarterly to discuss the various work-related problems, difficulties and grievances of these women.?

What about allegations of not giving the women in the police force the same type of work? Borah points out, ?We are trying to give them the same kind of work. In fact, we provide them conveyance if they have evening duty and separate restrooms. But of course, sometimes it becomes difficult for a woman to man a border outpost in inhospitable conditions. But women officers have done exemplary work in the battalions.? Borah also adds, ?There is no such thing as a sedentary posting or a field posting. All kinds of postings require intelligence and acumen. All kinds of investigations and detection work involves a scientific way of doing things.?

In terms of training, too, the women fare well. ?There are slight relaxation in physical activities like running and jumping. The drill and physical training are the same,? says Borah. But he regrets that even today, Assam police is not getting enough women recruits in the officer rank.

Indrani Baruah, additional SP (border), Guwahati city, however, asserts that her colleagues, seniors or subordinates have never made her feel that she is in a male-dominated profession. ?I don?t see any difference in the attitude of the general public either. They treat me like any other responsible police officer and have as much confidence in me as in any of my male colleagues,? she adds.

Echoing her views is Leena Doley, DSP, headquarters, Sonitpur, who feels that we have to throw away the baggage of the past, our gender fears and overcome imagined or genuine handicaps. She points out, ?It?s a challenge to excel in any profession. One has to prove one?s worth and I don?t think that women are better or worse off in a job. An officer is an officer, it hardly matters if one is male or female. But of course, there is a difference between being a good or a bad officer.?