ABSTRACT
The recent history of women in the Tamil Nadu police is characterized by series of bold experiments to meet the needs of the women officers and the society they serve. As in many other countries, women officers in Tamil Nadu were originally assigned a peripheral token role in policing, usually to assist male officers with clerical duties. The All Women Police Units (AWPUs) gave women officers the opportunity to learn a wide range of policing skills and improved their confidence in performing various police tasks. By establishing the AWPUs and the all women battalion and commandos, the Tamil Nadu police force has clearly embarked on a policy of gender segregation of its workforce. When assigned to general police stations, women police were assisting male police officers in clerical duties rather than in policing functions. The women's police stations, staffed by women, were to give confidence to women to come forward and report cases of rape, assault and maltreatment without embarrassment.
