Maharashtra Police to set up all women SRPF unit at Katol in Nagpur

Admitting the move on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Maharashtra Home minister Deshmukh said that the proposed force will be equipped with modern weapons and artillery, including AK assault rifles.

The Maharashtra Police have decided to set up an all-women battalion of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) at Katol, the Assembly constituency of Maharashtra Home Minister, Anil Deshmukh in Nagpur district. This would probably be the second such all women battalion after the Kerala Police had inducted its first all-women battalion with around 600 members in 2018.

The SRPF, so far has been a male-dominated force and induction of women would help it to address issues relating to gender-based violence and provide better security for women. (HT FILE PHOTO.)

Admitting the move on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Maharashtra Home minister Deshmukh said that the proposed force will be equipped with modern weapons and artillery, including AK assault rifles.

The SRPF is organised into 13 Groups at Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Solapur, Jalna, Amravati, Daund, Hingoli, Dhule and 3 Indian Reserve Battalions at Aurangabad, Gondia and Kolhapur.

The local SRPF group sources also informed that such a proposal was mooted by Home Minister Deshmukh and the minister had written a letter to ADG SRPF and IG SRPF Nagpur pointing out that an all women battalion did not exist in the SRPF of Maharashtra police and hence such a battalion be set up immediately.

With the Home Minister’s direction, the Planning and Coordination office of the state police took the decision of setting up an all women battalion. The SRPF, so far has been a male-dominated force and induction of women would definitely help it to address issues relating to gender-based violence and provide better security for women.

The state reserve police force unit was raised on March 6,1948, as a special armed force of Maharashtra. Maintaining law and order, disaster management, anti-Naxal operations, security of vital installations, etc., are some of its responsibilities.

The SRPF is a force of around 16,000 personnel. “Induction of women would definitely help it to address issues relating to gender-based violence and provide better security to women,” Deshmukh said.

Physical fitness is of utmost importance for SRPF personnel. The force also deals in crowd management during big festivals.