March 28, 2005

I love a woman in uniform

Ms. Magazine spotlights the world’s first all woman police battalion: the Tamil Nadu Special Forces Fifth Battalion.

They were first inducted into the Indian police force in 1973, but today women are mostly confined to desk jobs. In 1992, they were allowed in the defense forces but, again, in service and support jobs. This, despite India’s history of such warrior women as Rani Lakshmibai, who fought the British army in the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion, India’s first freedom struggle.

Still, Indian women are making a comeback, starting in the southern-most state, Tamil Nadu, where Avadi (a suburb of the state’s capital city, Chennai) houses the Tamil Nadu Special Forces Fifth Battalion: the world’s first all-female battalion.

Tamil Nadu has always been progressive regarding women, electing the first female chief minister (a state chief minister holds the power of a U.S. state governor). It boasts the first women’s university, first women’s engineering college, first female-staffed police station, first all-female police commando company, and now the first women’s special-forces police battalion.

According to the article, a women’s battalion is particularly useful when dealing with crimes against women that many insensitive a*hole male cops don’t handle properly. If only certain fundamentalist states in the Arab world would adopt such practice.

According to Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, since women constitute half the population, their problems could better be understood by policewomen. Each AWPS staffs 15 policewomen, and is focused on crimes against women.

Today, there are 188 AWPS, one in each Tamil Nadu district, along with two toll-free help lines — Woman in Distress and Child in Distress — through which anonymous complaints are pursued at the same priority level as regular complaints. The result: a 23 percent increase in reporting of crimes against women and children — and a higher conviction rate. Several other states have started pilot AWPS.

I have a great idea for a television pilot about a modern day Cagney & Lacey set in Tamil Nadu that I want to sell to American Desi TV.

abhi on March 28, 2005 05:25 PM in · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post