States asked to reserve 33% posts in police forces for women: Rajnath Singh

The Centre has issued an advisory to states asking them to reserve 33 per cent of posts in police forces for women, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.

He also said that under the Nirbhaya Fund created after the gruesome Delhi gangrape of 2011, nearly 40,500 police personnel are being trained especially for protection of women and cyber security.

Singh said two projects have been sanctioned under the Nirbhaya Funds and 60 counsellors would be hired in the next two years.

"I have written to Chief Ministers of all the states with regard to 33 per cent reservation in women and police. State governments have taken cognizance of it and are working in that direction," he said while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on Demand for Grants of Home Ministry.

During the debate, the Opposition accused the government of slashing funds for major programmes like internal security and police modernisation, saying this would weaken the fight against terrorism and extremism.

The Home Minister, while rejecting the opposition contention, said the government will roll out in a few months a student-police cadet scheme for which an action plan has been prepared.

The Student Police Cadet Project is a school-based youth development initiative that trains high school students with an aim of helping them evolve as future leaders by inculcating within them respect for the law, discipline, civic sense and resistance to social evils.

Talking about Kashmir which witnessed unrest last year, he said a plethora of measures were being taken to improve the law and order situation there.