Almost 50% of Panjab’s District Commissioners are Women

In Panjab, 10 out of 23 districts now have women as Deputy Commissioners (DC) an an additional four districts have women as police chiefs. The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) at the joint capital Chandigarh is also a woman IPS officer from Panjab. At least eight of these women officers have roots in Panjab. While Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Ravjot Grewal is from Patiala, Muktsar DC Ruhee Dugg is from Jalandhar, her Malerkotla counterpart is from Bathinda, while Fazilka DC Senu Kapila Duggal is from Ludhiana. Khanna SSP Amneet Kondal, Patiala DC Sakshi Sawhney, Fatehgarh Sahib DC Parneet Shergill and Barnala DC Poonamdeep have roots in Panjab. Nine of the ten DCs are posted in the Malwa region with districts neighboring Chandigarh – Mohali, Patiala, Ropar, and Fatehgarh Sahib – all led by women DCs. These officers were at the forefront when the state battled its worst-ever floods in decades earlier this year. These facts mark a significant social change in Panjab, once infamous for female foeticide with one of the lowest male-female ratios in India. According to 2001 census data, the child sex ratio was 798 which improved in 2011 to 846. The next census has now been due for the last two years but the figures are going up to 895 in 2020. The social change was most visible during the Farmers’ Protest with women farmers and students claiming their space. The change is evident in education where habitually Class X and XII toppers are young women. Even in medical courses, young women are outshining young men. The shift in families where increasingly daughters are taking care of the elderly needs to be studied.