Nagpur women police staff struggle as 8-hour duty relief is withdrawn, 12-hour shifts return

Nagpur: Women police personnel who handle household responsibilities along with police duty are in difficulty. They had been given a four-hour relaxation in duty hours to manage their domestic responsibilities. With that relaxation withdrawn, women personnel are facing hardship.

There are about 4,000 women personnel in the city police. Along with police duty, they also have to bear family responsibilities as homemakers, with the whole family resting on their shoulders. A police personnel is required to do 12-hour duty. Women personnel found it hard to discharge their duties as homemakers while working 12-hour shifts, and had long been demanding that the compulsory 12-hour duty be removed. In view of this, the then DGP Sanjay Pandey constituted a committee. On the committee's recommendation, Pandey issued an order on January 27, 2022, for women personnel to work 8-hour duty. Since then, women personnel had been working 8 hours, deployed in three shifts of eight hours each. This gave them time to fulfil their duties as homemakers.

From September 28, the city police stopped implementing this order. Since then, women personnel have been made to work 12 hours, on the lines of male personnel, and are deployed in two shifts. This is affecting their family responsibilities. Women personnel say the 12-hour duty affects their children the most, and they are unable to fulfil their duties as mothers. Women posted at police stations are the worst hit. They say 12 hours of duty at a police station stretches to 13 to 14 hours.

Police officers, however, say the department is struggling with an extreme workload and a shortage of manpower, which makes it unavoidable to increase the working hours of women personnel. Women personnel are needed to investigate cases involving women.