Women Cops Duty Hours Reduced From 12 To 8 hours In Maharashtra

To strike better work and life balance, the hours of duty for women police personnel across the state of Maharashtra will be reduced from 12 hours duty time to eight hours. This directive was issued by the state Director-General of Police Sanjay Pandey on January 27, Thursday. It has been ordered to be implemented immediately.

This lessening of duty hours will be done on an experimental basis. Usually, both men and women police personnel work on 12 hours duty shifts. The DGP's order to this stated that the eight-hour duty for women personnel will be implemented until further notice. The unit commanders have been ordered to implement the order and ensure that it stays that way till further order on the plan.

The news media reported that this change and reduction has been ordered to help the women personnel achieve a work-life balance. Although, this arrangement was already enforced in parts of Maharashtra like Nagpur city, Amaravati city and Pune Rural.

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Though, the work hours of women personnel can be increased during an emergency or during festive days. But the changes in duty hours can only be made with the permission of respective District Superintendents of Police (DSP) and Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCP).

Last year in September a similar step for reducing duty hours of women personnel was taken. The Indian Express reported that the change was announced after women constables approached the state police chief. The women constables complained that at times their duty hours were extended beyond the stipulated 12 hours shift which impacted their family lives.

At that time, Pandey had announced a similar reduction of the duty hour to eight for women personnel. He had said that this change has been made in some places and soon it will be observed in the entire state in a phased manner.

Reportedly, Pandey had consulted senior officials on the matter before deciding on this change. At that time, apart from Nagpur, Pune and Amravati, it was also implemented in Navi Mumbai. The officials said that this decision was taken after several women constables approached the chief on their working hours' irregularities.