Mubassir Latifi
During the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic change in the working and lifestyle of people across the globe. Social distancing measures required to stem the spread of the Novel Coronavirus have had a staggering economic and social impact. The pandemic has disturbed almost everything ranging from normal routines of eating, physical exercises and sleep, to things like job availability, working conditions, sleep patterns, incidence of psychological disorders and mental stress. Similarly, places like parks, playgrounds, educational institutions, public places of worship, markets and cinema halls where people used to go as a daily routine without even realising their importance, were all shut. Making us realise how for granted we take such things.
While all this came to a pass, arguably the maximum brunt was borne by womenfolk. Their responsibilities increased manifold and became more complex. Ranging from ensuring the education of the kids through online classes, managing household affairs without the presence of domestic helps, trying to conjure up new delicacies everyday for family members stuck at home due to the lockdown; and above all, let us accept it, facing the tantrums of men in the family. Among women probably the worst affected were working women who not only attended to their jobs in the work from home mode but also had to attend to household chores simultaneously in this changed landscape; blurring the boundaries of work and rest for them drastically affecting their quality of life. As we all know working mothers share disproportionate responsibilities of childcare, nursing and home-schooling. To make matters more difficult for them, research suggests that in the same situation they are twice as likely as men to spend more than four to five additional hours a day on household responsibilities now than they did prior to COVID-19 breakout.
Given all this, while most working women had the ‘luxury’ of working from home, Policewomen were an exception. They had to perform their job with increased workloads and without any relaxation making routines more difficult for them. Policewomen are facing additional unique challenges from COVID-19, these include tough working hours, more likelihood of getting infected by virtue of being frontline workers and carrying on this infection to their loved ones. Thus, surveys have shown that policewomen are three times more likely than non-Police women to report an issue related to pandemic as a recent challenge to them.
During the tough times of COVID-19 pandemic, Policewomen exhibited exemplary strength, dedication and an extreme sense of responsibility in discharging their duties as frontline COVID-19 warriors. It is pertinent to mention here how some women personnel posted in IRP 15th Battalion have been impacted by this pandemic and to what degree their day-to-day lives have changed. More than 60 Policewomen of this unit survived Covid-19 while discharging their duties.Their lived experiences mentioned below capture their strength of character, courage and resilience and utmost dedication to duty while facing the challenges of personal and domestic life.
Constable Kaveri Sharma after returning from day long law and order duties was going back to her home when she saw an aged lady standing outside her Battalion complex asking for a lift. True to the spirit of a Policewomen, she stopped her scooty and offered to drop her home. As soon as the lady took the pillion seat, Kaveri realised that she has all the known symptoms of COVID-19. As expected, the next day she got infected and had to be hospitalised, and there was nobody to take care of her 7 month old daughter. For the next 11 days, she remained admitted to Govt. Hospital Gandhinagar and her child was in the care of her aunt as by this time her husband and other family members also got infected.
Constable Nisha Rani was deputed to Katra along with 50 other Lady Officials for security duties at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan. As per protocol, all the officials are tested for COVID-19 and are supposed to carry a negative report before the deployment. Nisha reported directly at Katra and tested positive; she was immediately isolated in a Quarantine center. Although, medical care and all the necessary help was provided, she was all alone in the quarantine centre for 10 days facing physical and mental stress in unfamiliar surroundings with steadfastness. All this in the line of duty.
During the pandemic, Constable Renu Bala who was deployed for regulation of traffic at Bikram Chowk, Jammu saved a precious life by rescuing a young woman who was trying to commit suicide. In the commotion which followed, she too got infected with COVID-19, as a result she remained in home isolation for one week.
Like other workplaces a creche has been established in the Battalion complex where kids are kept in the care of trained lady officials when their mothers are deployed for various duties. Due to COVID, for the want of space, both the creche and the gym got converted into quarantine centres. As there was no relaxation of duties even during COVID, the hardships faced by the policewomen who used to keep their toddlers in the creche compounded manifold. They still performed their duties in an inspiring manner, putting these problems in the backdrop and showing utmost resilience.
A very important component of Policewomen is known as “Followers” or “Tradeswomen” in the police jargon. These are officials who work as cooks, electricians, plumbers, washers etc. It must be understood here that most of these women have been appointed in the Police Department on compassionate grounds. Most of them used to be homemakers but unfortunately due to the death in harness of one of their male family members (mostly martyred in anti-terrorist operations), they had no option left but to shoulder the responsibility of their families. Despite non-availability of public transport all these tradeswomen regularly reported to the Battalion for duties. More than 2000 face masks were stitched in the Battalion welfare centre by these tradeswomen and distributed among the poor and needy. How they managed to travel and what inspired them to be so altruistic in these tough times is a point to ponder over.
Many institutions might be opening up now after the pandemic but for Policewomen it was not only duty but training all the way! Besides performing multifarious duties viz. handling law and order problems, traffic regulation, security of vital installations and protection of VIPs as a matter of routine, the pandemic proved to be a time for capacity building for Policewomen of this Battalion as 400 women officials were imparted special training to deal with the pandemic.
The lived experiences shared above are a small example of how all these women have their own stories to share that about how they managed their personal and professional duties in these tough times. For these policewomen, the pandemic upended their work-life balance and affected their physical and mental health. In these tough times various schemes at the organizational level like grant of special welfare relief to COVID-19 infected officials, free medicines, masks and sanitizers and reimbursement of medical claims have helped in mitigating some of the problems thrown up by the pandemic. But it was only through the resilience, inspiration and fortitude that comes with being a woman that these Policewomen were able to rise up to the challenges thrown up by the pandemic. I conclude with a beautiful Urdu couplet which aptly captures the inspirational aspect of womanhood:
Shehar ka tabdeel hona, shaad rehna aur udaas// Raunqein jitni yahan hain, aurtun ke dam se hain.
(Every change here, happiness/mirth or gloom; all this lustre emanates from women)
(The writer is 1999 Batch JKPS Officer presently serving as Commandant, IRP 15th
Battalion, Jammu)
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