ROUGH ROADS TO EQUALITY

desk at every police station was necessary. These results parallel the survey findings that women police widely
believe that women are more comfortable approaching the police if they can speak to another woman.
As mentioned earlier, the government is already setting targets to increase the representation of women in the
police. One potential way to use this recruitment to the best effect is to plan for help desks for women at most
police stations in the country. This would have a great potential to remove obstacles to female victims’ access
to justice by ensuring that space is available for them to feel secure on approaching the police nationwide.
Some proposed all-women police stations as a model to help women in the community, especially victims, to
feel comfortable approaching the police. To compare how women police feel about the help desk versus the
all-women police station model, we asked mid-level personnel to share whether they would like to work in
all-women police stations.
An overwhelming majority of mid-level personnel said they would not want to work at police stations staffed
solely by women. Respectively, only about a fifth of Sub-Inspectors and a quarter of Assistant Sub-Inspectors
indicated a willingness to work at all-women stations.
Although there was no survey question on this subject for Constables, 72 we did share the question in the focus
groups. They were surprised by the idea, and found it ineffective at best and absurd at worst. All-women police
stations are more common in Pakistan and India (though their effectiveness is being debated), whereas they
are unheard of in Bangladesh.
It is clear that women police prefer the model of help-desks for women in police stations, rather than all-women
police stations. We got similar feedback from the senior women officers we interviewed. One interviewee
stated: “[The idea of an] all-woman police station is bad and a utopia. .... Thanas have to be made woman-friendly.
It is good to have women’s help desks manned by women-friendly police officers”. Another shared the concern that
“it will segregate women and women will not get an opportunity to learn if left in all-women police stations”. 73
The unease about segregating women is particularly acute where women’s opportunities in the police are
already limited by lack of infrastructure and opportunities in their career growth when seen against their male
colleagues. Indeed, it is already an underlying concern among many that women police are recruited only to
serve women and girl victims of crime.
A 2011 public opinion survey conducted by PRP demonstrated mixed findings with respect to respondents’
confidence in the ability of women police to perform as effectively as men. When asked what role women
should play in the police, almost 78% of respondents said they could assist women or child victims, with only
24.9% indicating that they could be involved in crime management or criminal investigation. 74
72 Originally we planned to only ask mid-level personnel this question, because assigning female personnel to all-women police
stations would limit their opportunities to investigate a variety of cases and would thus more greatly affect the ranks with investigative
powers.
73 Interview with a senior cadre woman officer, April 2014.
74 Police Reforms Programme (2011), “Baseline Survey on Personal Security and Police Performance in Bangladesh”, p. 21: http://
prp.org.bd/downloads/Baseline%20Survey%20on%20Personal%20Security%20and%20Police%20Performance%20in%20Bangladesh%20-Summary%20Report.pdf
as on 2 December 2015.
Survey Findings
WOMEN POLICE IN BANGLADESH
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