Mumbai Police to announce 8-hour shifts for female cops on International Women's Day

Women police officers take part in a safety march on International Women’s Day, at Marine Drive, on March 8, 2020. Pic/Ashish Raje

The arrival of Sanjay Pandey as the new Mumbai police commissioner has brought hope of revival of the 8-hour shift for women officers, which he had announced in January as the Maharashtra DGP. Highly placed sources in the department have confirmed that the 8-hour shift may resume for women officers in the city from March 8. Back then, the top police officers in the city were not too keen on the reduced work timings.

mid-day on February 17 reported that the top brass felt the reduced shift, from 12 hours to 8 hours, was difficult to implement because of low strength at police stations. Top officers also claimed the distance between officers' homes to the police station was also a hurdle in the implementation of the dynamic scheduling. According to highly placed sources in the CP's office, a process to restart 8-hour duty has been initiated and the proposal may get finalised by Friday. The CP is willing to re-launch the duty shift on March 8 on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Women police officers on duty at Malabar Hill

Pandey took charge of the commissioner of police (CP) office on February 28, and as the Maharashtra director general of police (DGP), he ordered the reduced timings for women officers on January 27, 2022. "He (Pandey) was keen on giving work shifts to women officers across Maharashtra, and now he wants to re-launch it in the city. It will benefit around 8,000 women officers in Mumbai," said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.

'A great gift'

"We had a balanced life when there was 8-hour duty, but because of Covid-19, it was interrupted. Now that everything has been unlocked, we expect the 8-hour shift to resume," a woman constable from the Central Region told mid-day. "If this is true, it would be a perfect gift for women police officers. We can give more time to our family, which we couldn't even during the pandemic. We will be thankful for new commissioner for this decision," said woman sub inspector from south Mumbai

First introduced in 2016

In Mumbai, the 8-hour shift was first introduced on May 5, 2016, at Deonar police station. Ravindra Patil, a constable posted at Deonar police station, reached out to the then commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and made a presentation about dynamic schedules. Thereafter, Padsalgikar set up a four-member committee and framed three phases to implement the plan.

Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey

The changes meant smooth functioning at police stations and brought much-needed relief to officers, especially constables. As the time came to implement the plan for the higher-rank officers, the Covid-19 struck.

The city police officers returned to the 12-hour work schedule when the country went under Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. The top brass was instructed to ensure maximum force for efficiency and effectiveness of patrolling. However, once the deadly second wave subsided, many police officers expected fresh order for the reintroduction of the reduced hours, but it never came.