Indian state plans 65 all-women police stations

KOLKATA, India – The woman chief minister of India’s West Bengal state unveiled plans Friday, December 28, for 65 all-female police stations, as authorities tried to assuage growing anger over a gang-rape in New Delhi.

“[Some] 65 all-women police stations will be set up across West Bengal to deal with crimes against women,” Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand leader of the Trinamool party, told a rally in the north of the state.

“[Around] 10 of these stations are already functioning,” she added.

Banerjee, who was until recently a coalition ally of the main ruling Congress party, also announced that 158 new courts were being set up in the state to fast-track cases involving crimes against women.

Her comments came after the federal government launched a drive to recruit more female officers as a confidence-building measure.

That campaign will start in the capital Delhi, where a 23-year-old student was brutally gang-raped on a bus on December 16, sparking nationwide protests.

The lack of women officers has been widely blamed for the failures of some police forces to thoroughly investigate allegations of sex crimes. Women currently account for less than one in five Indian police officers. – Rappler.com