ADGP’s advisory to keep women police officers off security duty kicks up row

Chennai: Activists and women professionals slammed additional director-general of police (law and order) S Davidson Devasirvatham's recent advisory to not deploy women officers for security duty. While they said it was discriminatory, the state police issued a clarification on Saturday saying the instructions were meant to speed up the investigation of Pocso cases and not to discriminate against women officers.

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Activists took objection to the advisory, saying that providing security is a paramount duty of police and depriving women officers of the command job is discrimination. "The state has seen woman DGP Letika Saran leading the entire police force," said advocate Sudha Ramalingam.

"Women cannot be discriminated against and cannot be denied opportunities or assignments merely on the basis of gender. Women are now increasingly occupying positions in armed forces and have proved their mettle. In this light, the advice issued by the ADGP stands against constitutional values," said the statement.

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