ROUGH ROADS TO EQUALITY

As the participants shared, some new police stations, particularly model thanas, are properly equipped.
However, most police stations are older and need some renovation. The government should earmark funds
to ensure these basic facilities are provided to women personnel, particularly in light of future recruitment.
Resources should especially be targeted at areas like Chittagong which appear to be most in need at present.
With the proper allocation of funds, and the implementation of the Gender Policy, this lack can be
addressed as the draft Gender Policy lays down:
1. There will be separate toilets for female police in all the police stations/ranges/units, police schools
and all the offices of Bangladesh Police.
2. There will be appropriate accommodation of female police in all the police stations.
The next survey question focused on whether there are separate barracks for women posted away from their
home districts.
In answer to this question, 50% of Inspectors, 70.3% of SIs and 79.3% of ASIs said that separate barracks
were provided for women posted away from their home districts. Similarly, 83.44% of women Constables said
there were barracks for women staff posted away from home districts.
However, during the Chittagong FGD, Constables said only some police stations have attached barracks for
women. In particular, they shared that police lines 65 were more likely to have separate barracks for women. In
Sylhet, the mid-level personnel said that every police station was equipped with separate barracks for men and
women, but that separate changing rooms were not always available.
Given the number of police stations in the country compared to the comparatively low number of women
personnel, it is unlikely that all of them are equipped with barracks for women. Indeed, one potential reason
for the high number of positive answers, especially among lower ranks, could be that these are available where
women have been assigned postings; if separate accommodation were not available, it is likely that they would
not be posted there. This indicates that perhaps our survey has not been able to capture the extent of the lack
of separate barracks for women.
The lack of separate barracks in many postings restricts women’s abilities to be assigned to areas and posts that
fit their skills and career goals. For women who seek postings in locations without women’s barracks, they
often have to rent their own accommodation, which is greatly burdensome on a small salary. 66 In the larger
picture, restrictions on where women can be posted limits gender sensitisation and inclusion to those areas
where appropriate facilities are already in place.
65 In comparison to a thana, which is an operational police station overseeing law and order in a particular jurisdiction, a police line
is residential accommodation.
66 According to our interviews, the base salary is 4500 Bangladeshi taka.
Survey Findings
WOMEN POLICE IN BANGLADESH
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