Job Satisfaction of Women Police: A Study of Hisar Police Range

 

Ajay Kumar

Research Scholar, Centre for Police Administration, University Institute of Emerging Areas in Social Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

 

ABSTRACT:

Since ancient time the position of women has been taken up very inferior to the male in our society. The women were assumed to fulfill the household duty only and to look after their children and the male hold the superior position in the family because the male were the only bread winner of the family. The females were only house arrested and this culture had been continued till long. The present scenario is changed in many ways and the female has taken up a new role. The women are entering in various occupations and one of the reasons behind that is the changing of the socio cultural conditions in the country. Legally they are equal to the male of the society but in practical aspect there are many loop holes which are still exist in the society. The work place differentiates between the role of men and women.  The police culture is the best example where the women are not accepted. There was an assumption that women are not fitted for the Police job which demands masculine features in the candidates. Instead of many barriers from society as well as male counterpart the women are making their place in the Police. Job satisfaction is the essential part of any organization to run it in a well manner. The dissatisfaction of the employ leads to failure of the organization in many ways. The present paper attempted to examine the level of job satisfaction of women police in the Hisar police range of Haryana police towards the many aspects of the job related to recruitment, promotion, relationship with male counterpart and supervisors, redressal mechanism, salary, promotion, leaves and working conditions.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Job satisfaction is one of the most widely discussed and enthusiastically studied constructs in such related disciplines as industrial-organization psychology, organization behavior, personnel and human resource management and organizational management. The job is not only the source of job satisfaction. The organizational culture, working environment and conditions, supervision style, interpersonal relationship also acts as important source of the job satisfaction. The person in any organization may like or dislike his job. That specific attitude towards his job decides the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

 

 

Happock (1935) stated that Job satisfaction is any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental circumstances that cause a person truthfully to say, "I am satisfied with my job”. He compared the satisfied and dissatisfied employees which revealed factors like social status, religion, interest, size and age of institution and the emotional adjustment. The police are the vital part of any society which ensures the security and peace in the society. According to the Oxford dictionary Police is an official organization whose job is to make people obey the law and to prevent and solve crime. So it would be worth discussing the job satisfaction of police personnel in the organization especially with reference to women in police which are still under representation in India which counts for only 6.44 percent in India and in Haryana the percentage of Women police is 7.50 percent only which is very less in comparison with the global level. Though the status of women in police in the recent years has been raised, the use of their potentials is yet inadequate and stagnant. It is a hundred years since women entered the area of policing but even today, they are not considered as equals to their male counterparts. As such, in many areas of the police work. Women police remain underutilized and underestimated (Krisnamurthi, 1996).

 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON WOMEN IN POLICE:

Higgins (1961)¹ has emphasized on the need of specific training of women police in a more professional manner so that they can perform better with their male counterpart in every area of policing. The training should be according to the socio cultural conditions so that they can deal in better way. Bhardwaj (1976)² explained the status of India with regards to social and cultural conditions in the Indian society which arises the need of women in policing. Johns (1979)³ threw a light on the opinion of male in policing towards the females and they think that the police job is a physical force demanding occupation which is not suited to women. They are more perfect in clerical works, so this shows their stereotype attitude towards women policing. Lock (1979)⁴ has said some positive things related to women policing that women can also perform duty of patrol. The women police on patrol are better because they are less ambitious and easier to control. Ghosh (1981)⁵ said that job performance of women police is also good like their male counterparts. The women police should be given more opportunity to use their talent with some improvements in uniforms, weapons and other working conditions Bell (1982)⁶ examined that the role of women in police is still not that much changed as it should be. Still they are more involved in the clerical and other female oriented works and their role is not accepted from the male as well as society point of view and general public towards women police. Remmington (1983)⁷ discussed the integration of female officers into the Atlanta Bureau of Police services and found that the females in police are not treated equally and the discrimination is still there in the police department due to their gender. Jones (1986)⁸ discussed that the women are still under representation and are subjected to the discrimination in the police department. Natarajan (2008)⁹ examined the role and functions of women police in Tamilnadu. The author founds that at initial stage women officers were deployed for service work and at that time the women deals more in juvenile and women related crimes. Women police were only limited to cases of juveniles and women. The author has also gives a account of Tamilnadu all women police units and the women police in the Battalion. Hilal and Olsson(2010)¹⁰ has pressrised the need of the recruitment of more women in policing with the help of volunteers, educational centers, internet and community volunteer centers which can attract the women towards policing and can change the perception that police occupation is not made for males. can help out the police agencies to attract women in police organization.

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The state of Haryana has been divided into five ranges. The current study is based on the responses from fifty women police selected from Hisar Police Range of Haryana. The women were randomly selected from the various police stations in Hisar range from the rank of Constable and Head Constables and have been asked various questions with the help of structured questionnaire. The help of secondary data has also been taken up for the theoretical framework of the paper.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objective of the study is to know the job satisfaction of lower ranks of women in Police from the selected area towards the various aspects of the job and the problems which are faced by women as police and also to throw some lights on the integration of women in the policing.

 

PRACTICAL IMPLICATION:

The study can be fruitful for the police administration of Haryana with special reference to Hisar police to know about the various problems faced by the women in the lower ranks of the police.

 

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY:

The study is based on only fifty lower rank women police personnel so the study can be further undertaken with large sample and the extended scope to higher rank also. The personal difference of opinion from the respondents can also be the limitation of the study. Further research can be undertaken regarding the difference of satisfaction level with respect to lower and higher ranks.

 

Historical Background of women in police:

The United States of America was perhaps the first country in the world to recognize the need of policewomen when ‘Police matrons were appointed in New York City in the Year of 1845. The main duties of the women Police were to deal with girls and women which were in Police custody by the law enforcement agency.  Alice Stebbins Wells was the first policewomen in Los Angeles in the year of 1910.After that many developed country started the process of integration of women in policing. By the year of 1930 most of the European countries had women in police force with the limited role which later on emerged. It is evident in the early history of policing which is available in the Ramyana, Mahabharta, Arthashastra of Kautilya and also evidenced in the Ashokian edicts. The surveillance role were given to women at that time also with some spying role too. The only difference was that in early time the women were not in organized manner which only happened in 20^th centaury in India. It was first felt the need of police women in India during the labor strike in Kanpur in the year of 1938. After the partition of India, the condition of the country was worse which give arise the need to protect the women by women police in the better way. The state of Travancore also experimented the appointment of women as special police constables in the year of 1933. By the 1970’S Women had broken various barriers related to legal as well as stereotype attitudes and they had started their entry in the police departments.

 

Women Police in Haryana:

The state of Haryana came into existence in the year of 1966. Previously it was a part of Punjab; hence the development process of policewomen in Haryana remains the same as has been in the state of Punjab. The only point worth mentioning here is that since 1966, when the state got its share of one reserve of policewomen at Ambala, there has been no addition to its strength till July 1988. All the incumbents of policewomen were posted at Ambala and whenever their services were needed in any part of the state they were sent from Ambala. At present there is only 7.50 percent of Women in Haryana police.

 

Personal Information of the Respondents:

Out of total selected fifty women police thirty women police were of constable rank and remaining twenty were Head Constables. The totals of 40 respondents were of married status and the remaining 10 were unmarried. The total twenty five were of graduate level and ten out of total were post graduate and the remaining 15 were of intermediate level qualification.

 

 

Responses from Women Police:

Table 1:

Sr. No.	Statement	Satisfied (%)	Neutral (%)	Dissatisfied (%)
1	Satisfaction with the recruitment in Haryana Police	62	10	28
2	Satisfaction with the attitude of superiors	64	12	24
3	Satisfaction towards the behavior of male colleague in the police department	60	10	30
4	Satisfaction with grievances redresssal mechanism	15	5	80
5	Satisfaction regarding the numbers of women police	100	0	0
6	Level of satisfaction with the monthly salary given	10	5	85
7	Satisfaction with regards to promotion	10	10	80
8	Satisfaction with regarding leaves	05	08	87

 

Responses regarding various working conditions at police stations:

Table 2:

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:

It was found from the responses of women in Hisar range police that in many areas the women in police of lower ranks are not yet satisfied. The most of the respondents i.e. 62 percent were found satisfied with the recruitment of Haryana Police and they think that this is going through in bias less manner and fare selections of candidates and remaining 28 percent were found dissatisfied based on their personal experiences of some corruption during their selection in the services. The total 10 percent of the respondents were carried neutral attitudes towards the statement. With regards to the relationship with their superiors it was found that 64 percent of the total respondents are satisfied with their superiors and having healthy relationship which is very necessary for a organization and the remaining 12 were neutral with 24 percent dissatisfied respondents. To know about the behavior of male counterpart the women police were asked their satisfaction with regard to male counterpart and it was a good sign that most of the respondents i.e. 60 percent were satisfied with the male behavior with remaining 30 percent dissatisfied and 10 percent neutral responses which is a good sign in the police male dominated department. Eighty percent of the respondents were not satisfied with the redressal mechanism for their grievances and they think that this is not much effective and rest of twenty percent found it satisfied with remaining neutral respondents. It was surprisingly found that none of the respondents were satisfied with the number of women in police and they think that the present strength is totally inadequate to deal with the work load. The salary was also the main issue found where majority of the respondent were found dissatisfied i.e. eighty five percent and the other ten percent with satisfied and remaining five percent were having neutral responses. Majority of the 80 percent were found dissatisfied with the promotion given by police department and remaining ten percent each were having neutral and satisfied responses towards the promotion in police department. The leave were also found main issue from the respondents and 87 percent were not satisfied because they experienced many problems while availing them and the work load is the main problem behind that and due that their leaves got delayed. There were three statements given to the respondents regarding their satisfaction towards the working conditions in which they are working and the results were not found satisfactory because 95 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied with the toilet conditions in the police stations with remaining got satisfied. The medical facility were also dissatisfactory according to 90 percent of the respondents with remaining all having neutral responses and the eighty percent of respondents were not satisfied with the rest rooms because of non availability of the rest rooms in most of the police stations and most of the time they use the rooms of their male colleagues and the remaining of the respondents were neutral towards the statement.

 

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS:

The women in police are the integral part of policing. To ensure the satisfaction of women in police department is the responsibility of the police administration so that it can motivate other women to join the police force. It is many essentials to check the job satisfaction of women police to know about the various issues of women in policing. The women in Hisar range police are happy with the behavior of male colleague which is a good sign in male dominated police culture. It is also concluded that there are still various problems of women in policing at police stations. The working conditions are still needed to be improved so that it can ensure a healthy working environment at work place. The income is needed to be improved to raise the motivational level of the women in police. The present pay scale is not satisfactory for women in policing as comparative to other department. There should be arrangements of medical check up to ensure the health rights of the women police personnel. The stagnancy at one rank for many years leads to the dissatisfaction among employees so it is necessary for the policy maker to make policy related to promotion in such a manner that there should be no stagnancy at a rank. The strength of the women in police is needed to be increased and there should have 33 percent quota implementation for women in police so that the representation could be increased of women in police. Due to the under representation the work load of women in police is more which leads to stress among women police personnel and increasing of working hours also leads to health related problems among women police personnel. Improvement in working conditions for the women police personnel will definitely increase the morale of the women in police and will also attract other females to join the women police force.

 

REFERENCES:

1.        Higgins, Lois Lundell (1961), “Police Woman’s Manual”, Charles C Thomas Publisher, Illinois, U.S.A., PP.116-127

2.        Bhardwaj,Aruna(1976), “Police Modernisation In India :A Study Of Women Police In Delhi”,Indian Journal Of Social Work,Vol.37(1),PP.39-48

3.        Johns,Christina Jacqueline(1979), “The Trouble With Women In Policing:Attitudes Aren’t Changing”,Criminal Justice Review Spring,Vol.4,No.1,PP.33-40

4.        Lock,JOAN,(1979), “ The British Policewomen-Her Story”,Robert Hale London,PP.38-39

5.        Ghosh,S.K.(1981), “Women In Policing” Light And Life Publishers,New Delhi,PP.106-110

6.        Bell, D.J. (1982), “Policewomen-Myths and Reality”, Journal Of Police Science And Administration,Vol.10.Issue 1,PP.112

7.        Remmington, Patricia Weiser (1983), “Women In The Police: Integration or Separation?”, Qualitative Sociology, Vol.6, Issue:2, PP.118-135

8.        Joanes, Sandra (1986), “Policewomen and Equality: Formal Policy V Informal Practice?”, Macmillan Press Ltd, London, PP.129-148

9.        Natarajan, Mangai (2008), “Women Police In A Changing Society-Backdoor to Equality”, Ashgate Publishing Limited, England

10.     Hilal,Susan m. And Olson,David p.(2010), “Police Reserve Officers: Essential Today’s Economy And Opportunity To Increase Diversity In The Law Enforcement”,the police chief,vol.77, no.10,oct.,u.s.a.

 

 

 

 

 

Accepted on 03.05.2017          © A&V Publications all right reserved