The Kerala Police Officers’ Association (KPOA) has called for gender-neutral recruitment across ranks in the police force by focussing solely on skills and qualifications to ensure equal opportunity and a diverse workforce. The association also proposed complete computerisation of documentation in police stations.
The KPOA emphasised the need to move away from the existing practice of fixing minimum targets for women’s representation and instead prioritise merit-based appointments. Such an approach, it said, would enable a higher proportion of women to join the force organically over the long term. It also sought to extend the current policy of recruiting women in significant numbers at the Sub-Inspector level to the rank of Civil Police Officer.
The proposals received strong support at a State-level KPOA workshop held here. S. Ajeetha Begum, Inspector General of Police, Economic Offences Wing, Crimes and Social Policing Directorate, underscored the importance of expanding the role of women in the police force. A higher representation of women, she noted, would align with Kerala’s demographic profile, where women outnumber men, and could make the force more empathetic and compassionate.
KPOA State general secretary C.R. Biju, while presenting various demands at the programme, also called for an overhaul of the “archaic” style of writing used in case diaries, First Information Reports (FIRs), chargesheets, remand reports and other legal documents. He stressed the need to move away from the convoluted and lengthy sentences and adopt a modern style marked by clarity, brevity and concise sentence construction, in keeping with changing times.
Published – January 02, 2026 08:43 pm IST
