{"id":2048,"date":"2018-07-25T16:59:11","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T11:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.22.110.190\/english\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2018-07-25T22:41:34","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:11:34","slug":"kolkata-polices-all-women-patrolling-team-dreamers-performers-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/kolkata-polices-all-women-patrolling-team-dreamers-performers-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Kolkata Police’s all-women patrolling team: Dreamers, Performers, Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conversation with a police officer (male):<\/p>\n

Me: I don\u2019t agree that women police personnel are required to handle eve-teasing and so-called women\u2019s issues. Can\u2019t male officers handle these? Also, can\u2019t women do the work that male officers are doing? Being traffic sergeants and IPS officers? Why should there be gender-based discrimination in a job?<\/p>\n

Officer: This isn\u2019t discrimination. When there’s a case of domestic violence, doesn\u2019t a woman feel more comfortable talking to a woman officer?<\/p>\n

Me: When a woman is harassed on the streets, male officers can handle these too. Why should women be seen as unable to do the \u201cdifficult\u201d jobs that male police personnel are doing?<\/p>\n

Officer: It will happen. It takes time. There can be women traffic sergeants too.<\/p>\n

Me: I think there should be more examples of women doing all kinds of work in a police force rather than specialised teams addressing women\u2019s issues only.<\/p>\n

And so I went to meet members of Kolkata Police\u2019s Winners team, feeling rather worried. I was worried about the general feeling among people heading organisations that women are unable to do \u201ctough\u201d jobs, and even when they join an organisation, they are assigned jobs that concern only women.<\/p>\n

Winners is a 24-member newly-formed all-women patrolling team that goes around the city to \u201ccombat and prevent crimes\u00a0like molestation, eve-teasing etc to make public places safer for women.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when I finally meet the sprightly, plucky youngsters \u2013 all of them constables recruited in September last year \u2013 I do change my mind that they have been assigned only \u201cwomen\u2019s issues\u201d to handle. Or that their jobs are “easier” than the work male constables are doing. In fact, I learn about their stories of struggle and suffering, and how they still held on to their audacious dreams that they have now fulfilled.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Chaitali Roy<\/strong> has three sisters \u2013 one of them got a decent job recently and was married, another one was married and is looking for a job and her younger sister recently completed graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine what people say to parents who have four daughters and no son,\u201d she told me. \u201cOur relatives and neighbours would tell my mother to not spend money on our education, but to keep saving money for our weddings instead.\u201d Her mother, who has worked hard to make ends meet by running a garments shop in their Bongaon home, didn\u2019t agree.<\/p>\n

Instead, the parents spent all their money on the girls’ education. Chaitali is a Science graduate and cracked the entrance test for Kolkata Police constables last year. She has undergone a six months’ rigorous training and a special training of 45 days to be part of the Winners team.<\/p>\n

Both her sisters who were married in the past couple of years spent their \u201cown hard-earned money\u201d on their wedding. Now that Chaitali got a job, she hopes her mother will work less. Her father passed away last year. She is proud of the job she is doing. \u201cThose who looked down upon me, now try to strike up a conversation. They treat me with respect,\u201d she says, her jaws taut. There\u2019s anger and fire in her eyes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
From left to right: Rumpa Bhakta, Kanika Mondol, Madhumita Mahapatra and Chaitali Roy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Madhumita Mahapatra<\/strong> lives in Howrah\u2019s Santragachhi with her husband. They have come down to a bigger city — from Kharagpur where their families continue to live — in search of a better life.<\/p>\n

She reports for work at 6.30 in the morning. In groups of ten, the Winners team goes on patrolling around schools, colleges, shopping malls, bus stops, to figure out if women are facing harassment. There are afternoon and night shifts too. \u201cAt night, we have to keep an eye on drunken driving. We stop cars, check drivers with breathalyser and inform the nearest police station if required,\u201d she said. If she is on night duty, Madhumita stays back in the police barrack. Otherwise, she reaches home at around 8 pm. \u201cMy husband and I share the house work. We reach home around the same time, and it\u2019s not my job alone to manage home,\u201d Madhumita says, smiling.<\/p>\n

Rumpa Bhakta<\/strong>\u2019s father is a police officer. And he didn\u2019t want his daughter to do a job he felt “is more suitable for men\u201d. \u201cBut I don\u2019t agree with him. I am enjoying myself,\u201d says Rumpa, who graduated from a Madhyamgram college, in the northern fringes of Kolkata. \u201cI don\u2019t know why a lot of men think women should be soft and vulnerable. I am sure there are many who like independent, strong women. Toughness is in the mind after all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kanika Mondol<\/strong>, a Science graduate from Burdwan University, is the youngest of three girls in the family. She has always seen her parents being ridiculed and ostracised for having three girls and no son. In the extended family, the three sisters weren\u2019t really showered with love and respect. \u201cBut I was always a tough person. If someone made an unfair comment in college, I would protest. Bhebe dekhish kakey bolchhish eshob <\/em>(don\u2019t you dare say such things to me<\/em>),\u201d Kanika would tell her male classmates.<\/p>\n

The journey from a tiny village like Burdwan\u2019s Rasulpur to being a part of a kick-ass police force in Kolkata has been dramatic, and today it has made her more confident. \u201cThings are different now. I do my work confidently. We have gone through the same training as male constables,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

I ask her if she is willing to stand hours on the road exposed to the heat and dust and do such hard work. \u201cOf course! Is there anything human beings can\u2019t do?\u201d she says, eyes sparkling.<\/p>\n

Winners team leaders \u2013 sub-inspector Sampa Guha, sub-inspector Zinnatara Khatun and assistant sub-inspector Mita Kansabanik \u2013 with years in service, have trained the 24 constables for their job. And there\u2019s nothing these constables are unable to do that their male counterparts can. They\u2019ve gone through exactly the same training as the men, and they are working just as hard.<\/p>\n

The purpose of looking at the personal lives of the Winners team constables is not to belittle their success by showing their vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

It is to see how the journey of these women constables from villages and small towns of West Bengal to start a career in one of the most prestigious police forces in the country has been a lot more tough than the struggles of young men their age.<\/p>\n

Behind the power and confidence that the vroom of the motorbikes exudes, there are struggles and hunger to assert themselves, and the resilience to\u00a0turn negativity and bias into wonderful success stories.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Picture courtesy: Kolkata Police Facebook page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stories of remarkable resilience and wonderful successes of Kolkata Police’s Winners team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gender"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}