Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 23: While nearly 50 percent population in the State consists of females, hardly 3% members of the fair-sex exist in J&K Police whereas, nearly 12% in the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS).
These startling revelations were made by Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather who was responding on behalf of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Upper House of the J&K Legislature during Question Hour today. The only National Conference member, representing fair sex in the Legislative Council, Dr Shahnaz Ganai, today raised this important issue. She asked when women constitute 50% of the population, why this ratio was so low and what concrete steps are being taken by the Government to empower women in various walks of life including employment in Government/private sector. Does the Government contemplate any policy for reservation of women in the Government jobs.
Dr Ganai also sought the detail of the percentage of female employees Gazetted and Non-gazetted in various cadres including State, Divisional, District, Police, Accounts Services, J&K Administrative Services, J&K Police Services, all wings of Police and Local Bodies as well.
While giving reply, Mr Rather said the percentage of female employees in the J&K Police (Gazetted) Service (KPS) is 3. In other wings of Police in Jammu Zone, the percentage of female employees is 2.86. In Kashmir Zone it is 1.91, in CID 2.17%, zero percent in SSG, PHQ, Police Telecom and Dy SP Ministerial while just 0.2% in Traffic and 0.08 % in SDRF.
In security the percentage of female cops was 7.16, in Crime branch 1.25, Railways 3.38, SKPA 2.12, FSL 9.37, Police hospital 18.18, Armed Police 4.90, Prisons 6, Prosecution wing 3.9, while 155 as DySP Steno.
Besides this, senior scale KAS female officers were 12.03% and junior scale KAS nearly 11.87%. In J&K Accounts Services (Gaz) their percentage was 19, whereas, in Local Bodies both Kashmir and Jammu the Gazetted cadre female employees were 6.7% while in Non-Gazetted cadre nearly 9.8%. The highest percentage of (52%) women employees was there is Health & Medical Education Department at State level, followed by 48.87 % (Gaz) in Social Welfare Department. In Information Department their percentage is 28.57 %, 32 % in Labour Department, Animal and Sheep Husbandry 25.4 %, Technical Education 15.80%, Power 11 %, Tourism 11. 7 %, Sc & Technology 18 %, Planning & Dev 18 %, CAPD 7.1 %, Forest 4.5 % Cooperatives 6.59 % , Estates NG just 15 % and Gaz zero %, RDD just 8%, Transport 1.3 %, Law Department 19 %, School Education 30 % (G&NG), Higher Education 41 % (G&NG), Industry and Commerce 10.7% and PWD hardly 0.3 %.
While replying to another question, Rather said at present there was no proposal of providing reservation to women in the Government jobs, though there are posts in some departments where only females are eligible. However, under J&K Reservation Act, 2004, 50 % of seats in each category (including open) are reserved for females for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. He said Government was committed to empowerment of women in all walks of life. Many steps have been taken in this regard by the Government.
As majority of the members wanted to raise supplementaries on the issue, the chairman allowed half an hour discussion on the subject in the House on any other day.
Follow our WhatsApp channel