Pune Rural Police Chief Abhinav Deshmukh has issued a notification reducing daily duty hours for women constables to eight hours per day, down from the current 12-hour daily duty, which in many cases extends for a few more hours. The alteration was made as an experiment, and a decision on whether or not to keep it will be made after further evaluation.
At the moment, 350 of the 2,500 Pune Rural Police officers are women. Deshmukh told about the notification: "This is a change of duty hours on an experimental basis. The purpose is to help women cops achieve a better balance between professional and family commitments. We will evaluate the outcome of this experimental change and will then decide whether to continue with it. This will come into force from September 1, for women cops from the rank of police constable to assistant sub-inspector."
The constabulary is primarily made up of ranks ranging from police constable to assistant sub-inspector, as opposed to officers of sub-inspector and higher. According to officials, the decision to make this change was made after a thorough discussion with the state police chief, Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey.
Several police jurisdictions in the state have attempted in the past to reduce cops' duty hours from the standard 12 plus hours to eight hours. In almost all of these cases, the initiatives had to be scrapped due to a lack of personnel required to allow for shorter duty durations while still meeting the desired policing targets.
