Rawalpindi: Manisha Ropeta has broken a glass ceiling.
She is not only among just a handful of top female officers in Sindh Police, but more significantly, Manisha has become the first woman from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan to be appointed as Deputy Superintendent of Police, reported PTI.
That’s no mean achievement because it is extremely difficult for women in male-dominated Pakistan to make a mark in professions considered to be “manly” such as the police force.
“From childhood, I and my sisters have seen the same old system of patriarchy where girls are told if they want to get educated and work, it can only be as teachers or doctors,” said Manisha, who is from Jacobabad area in Sindh province.
Hailing from a middle-class family, Manisha was determined to end the prevailing trend that the police or district courts was not for girls from educated families.
“Women are the most oppressed and the target of many crimes in our society and I joined the police because I feel we need ‘protector’ women in our society,” she explained.
Manisha, who is now undergoing training, wants gender equality in police force.
“I want to lead a feminisation drive and encourage gender equality in the police force. I myself have always been very inspired and attracted to the police work,” remarked the DSP, whose other three sisters are all in the medical profession while her brother is also studying to be a doctor.
Manisha revealed that she had failed to clear her MBBS entrance exam by just one mark.
“I then told my family I was taking a degree in physical therapy but at the same time I prepared for Sindh Public Services Commission exams and passed that, getting 16th position among 468 candidates.”
Manisha, whose businessman father died when she was 13, was brought to Karachi along with her siblings by her mother.
The mother sure did a great job of raising her children and would be one proud lady now.
