Tackling the rape problem in India is an immense task. In June 2018, however, ELLE travelled to India to reported on the revolutionary female squads hoping to do just that. A new, all-female police force, mounted on motorbikes, they aimed to keep women safe on the streets. In pairs, they zig-zag across the city, interrupting crime when they see it taking place.
Now approaching the situation a little over one year later, has anything improved? Our reporting in 2018 coincided with upheaval, after a series of violent attacks against women. Once again, India is grappling with a number of high-profile rape cases. In Jaipur, the abduction and rape of a seven-year-old earlier this month sparked mass rioting.
Amid a rising wave of violence against women in India, one of the big issues was that women constituted just 7 percent of the police force. Girls are traditionally conditioned to work in desk jobs, not out in the field.
But that might look set to change. While reporting in Jaipur, India, ELLE followed an all-female police unit – the only one in the northern state of Rajasthan. You can watch the video that we made below.
Since then, the State Government has announced the introduction of 'Lady Patrolling Units' in all seven major cities in Rajasthan – Ajmer, Udaipur, Kota, Bharatpur, Bikaner and Jodhpur, in addition to Jaipur.
What's more, 404 new jobs were created for women police officers as a result.
For the remaining 26 districts, the government dedicated a budget of £582,000 ($725K) to buy extra vehicles, wireless sets, smartphones, pepper sprays and batons for existing female officers. No new jobs were created, but a fresh proposal has been sent to the government for the sanction of squads in those remaining cities.
One year on, it seems the very presence of female officers has begun to deter men from their questionable behaviour. At first, much of the squad's time focused on preventing men from harassing (known locally as 'eve-teasing') women in public areas, such as shopping malls and colleges. This happens less now, according to 42-year-old Nirmala Lakhera, who we profiled in the original story.
'Men used to question us, or [try to] discipline us, but now they run away,' she explains over the phone from Jaipur. 'Those [types of] incidences don’t happen so much anymore, like they used to when the police force was first formed. Drunk men used to follow women in parks but this has reduced because of all the activities the police force are doing. People get scared and leave if they see us.’
As far as crime against women is concerned, the number of eve-teasing cases (inappropriate behaviour with women, harassing etc) registered in the first six months of 2019 was 3054 across the state, compared to 2155 during the same period last year. That's a 41.72% increase.
‘We look at [these stats], not as an increase in crime, but increase in crime reporting,' explains Gaurav Srivastava, the Additional Commissioner of Police who spearheaded the project, 'which emanates from increased confidence amongst women that their complaint will be heard empathetically and acted upon in accordance with law.’
The increased visibility of female officers patrolling the streets has resulted in 'women finding a more conducive environment towards complaint reporting', says Srivastava. This lead to not only an increase in crime figures, but the number of false reports reducing by three per cent. The number of cases the team investigated and closed also rose by 15% between 2018 and 2019.
Less obvious is the way in which the squad have morphed, and expanded, since our visit. While Nirmala initially said ‘nothing major’ had changed, it appears their duties have stretched far beyond protecting women.
‘In the beginning we were told this unit was formed to help women, but we did more than that,' she explains. 'We did everything in the field. We now arrest drunk men, which was always a man’s job. People thought women can’t do this type of police work, but now we’re doing many of the duties we weren’t allowed to do before.’
Rather than solely arrest men who harass women, the female officers are taking part in police work once previously deemed off limits. Nirmala detailed the time she received a tip about a man selling illegal alcohol behind the local hospital. She headed over alone, 'grabbed the man,' and held him there by herself.
She continues: 'As I called through the wireless set for a van, he started running away. I literally fell on the ground, I was crawling with him as he was running away. I didn’t let him go, I kept holding onto him, and then the police van came and finally arrested him. The male cops on arrival were really shocked – they never expected a female cop to hold a man down on the ground. They were surprised.’
As recent news reports indicate, sexual violence is still very much a problem in India. The female officers aren't solving it, so much as quietly chipping away at it. If working in the squad has proved an effective way to gain power, to rise up the ranks in a notoriously male-dominated world, what will the landscape look like next year? In five years?
Young women are already paying attention. College girls will often tell Nirmala and her colleagues they're not fussed about the police force at large, but are keen to join the all-female squads within it.
‘When they see us, they’re inspired,' she adds.
'The Warriors' is a year-long reporting project by ELLE and the Fuller Project for International Reporting, funded by the European Journalism Centre via its Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme.
