CLAIM
A viral video on social media claims to show the first Muslim IPS officer of Maharashtra. In the video, a girl dressed in civilian clothes can be seen coming out of a car and being received by police officers.
Several social media users on Twitter and Facebook have further claimed that “nobody has the guts to ask her about uniform.”
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim along with the video is misleading. The girl seen in the video was made the district superintendent of police (DSP) for one day in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district.
The incident took place ahead of the International Women’s Day in March and was a part of a week-long initiative taken by Buldhana Collector Suman Chandra.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We divided the video into multiple keyframes and reversed searched them on Yandex which led us to a video uploaded on 5 March with the title: “maharashtra m jab urdu midium m parhne waali bachchi ko ek din k liye sp banaaya (sic)”.
The title suggested that the video is from Maharashtra when a girl was made the superintendent of police for a day.
Further, we conducted a keyword search on YouTube and found a video uploaded by Time of India on 5 March with the title: “Women's Day: 14-year-old girl becomes DSP 'for a day' in Maharashtra's Buldhana.”
As per the description of the video, 14-year-old Sahrish Kanwal was made the district superintendent of police (DSP) for one day in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district. The incident took place ahead of the International Women’s Day and was a part of an initiative taken by Buldhana Collector Suman Chandra.
The week-long initiative had let girls experience the administration’s functioning.
“Sahrish Kanwal, from zilla parishad urdu high school, Malkapur tehsil, took over as DSP for a day. Sahrish resolved to end cases of atrocities against women and child and aim towards ensuring every girl becomes self-dependent and proves her mettle,” the TOI description mentioned.
Taking a cue about the location of the video, we searched on TweetDeck using relevant keywords and found a tweet by Buldhana Police. The tweet, when translated in English, reads: “"I want to be a police superintendent .." Very important for me today! - Expectation of one-day Police Superintendent Sahrish Kanwal, zilla parishad high school, Malkapur.”
MUSLIM REPRESENTATION IN POLICE CONSISTENTLY LOW: REPORT
A report published by the Tata Trusts in 2019 by the name of ‘India Justice Report 2019’ mentions that from 1999-2013, the Indian police has consistently witnessed low Muslim representation in police, at 3-4 percent out of 14.2 percent Muslim population.
“A few states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal include reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes category. Inexplicably, since 2013, the National Crimes Records Bureau annual report has ceased reporting the level of Muslim representation in the police,” the report adds.
Regarding the percentage of women representation in police, the report mentions that they account for only 7 percent. “Over 5 years, 31 states and UTs have improved women's representation in the force. The pace, however, is much too slow.”
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