Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Police has taken a series of initiatives to strengthen women-friendly policing, including ex-panding the deployment of female personnel, upgrading service desks for women, children and elderly people and establishing daycare facilities for children of female police personnel.
“The initiatives are part of ongoing police reform efforts to make law enforcement more responsive to gender-based violence, online violence, hate and bullying, “Additional Inspector General of police Gazi Jashim Uddin told yesterday.
The initiatives come as Bangladesh Police continues to expand women’s participation in law enforcement and gender-responsive policing, he added.
As part of efforts to support female police personnel in the eight divisional cities, steps have been taken to establish daycare centers for their children, according to a Home Ministry report on the BNP govern-ment’s first 180 days in office.
A daycare centre is currently being established in Uttara under the supervision of the 5 Armed Police Battalion.
Police have also moved to transform the service desks for women, children and elderly people at the 64 district Sadar police stations into model facilities through specialised training and modern equipment.
Female police officers have already been deployed in required numbers in different ranges and metro-politan units, while further deployment is continuing according to the needs of individual units.
Under the UNFPA-funded Prevention and Response for Gender Based Violence Against Women and Girls (PrevIL) project, women and child help desks have been established at 92 police stations in 10 dis-tricts, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Noakhali, Patuakhali,
Barguna, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Sirajganj and Bagerhat.
The project has also provided initial awareness and training on the rights and legal assistance of women, children and elderly people at the concerned police stations.
For the remaining 54 district Sadar police stations, authorities have proposed a new project to provide training and modern equipment and turn their women, children and elderly service desks into model fa-cilities.
Bangladesh Police currently has 17,970 female personnel, accounting for 9.07 percent of its total strength, with women serving across ranks up to positions equivalent to Additional Inspector General of Police.
The Additional IGP said women police officers have demonstrated their capabilities at every level through their hard work, dedication, professionalism and competence.
“Women have successfully carried out the responsibilities entrusted to them at every level, from consta-ble to Additional IG. This is a very positive development. They are in no way behind in terms of per-formance,” he said.
As Bangladesh Police implements the BPWN Strategic Plan through 2027, authorities are focusing not only on increasing women’s participation but also on expanding their leadership, investigative and opera-tional roles across the force.
