More women to man city traffic

“It hasn’t been as scary as I had feared it would be… In fact,it has been good till now,” says Renu,who is among the first batch of women constables to be posted straight to the Traffic Department,which,till now,has had negligible representation of women.

Renu,an arts graduate from DU,was among the first batch of 270 women traffic constables that passed out this January. “We underwent training for nine months at the Jadoda Police Training College in Nagafgarh. Traffic regulation was a part of our training,but we never thought that all of us would be sent straight to traffic,” she adds.

Before this batch,there were just 31 women traffic police personnel in the Capital,and out of them only 18 were constables who actually regulated traffic. The number of woman traffic constables has now increased to 341,including some transferred from other departments,and the number of Head Constables gone up from three to 12.

“There is scarcity of staff in the department and,anyway,we had very few women constables. Since the government decided to increase the percentage of women in the police,the Traffic Department too has got new recruits,” explains Special Commissioner of Traffic Ajai Chadha.

“They will be well trained before the Games,” he adds.

With the Traffic Department putting some thought behind their postings and timings,the women have been able to take up the job without much trouble. While 75 and 78 women constables are posted in Central and New Delhi respectively,the North East district and East district have just three and two women respectively.

“To start with,the women have been posted in the safe areas and their shift ends by 6 pm,” said a traffic policeman. Till now,all the women constables have been posted at places where their male collegues are already working and none of them regulate traffic alone.

In the two months Renu has been on the road,she has seen heavy traffic jams,regular signal failures and irresponsible driving too. “I am learning on the job,all of us are. It is hard,but it is okay,” she says.