Manisha Ropeta is the first hindu woman to achieve the position in the sub-continent and that too at the age of 26. So far, all the winds have shown the male dominated culture of Pakistan and the habitat’s inconsistency with the lives of minority community that is Hindu.
However, Manisha Ropeta is also among the few female officers in authoritative positions in Sindh Police. She has out maneuvered all the adversities to become DSP in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s moral structures are however, against a woman holding any authoritative position and that too of profession that is considered to be made for ‘men’.
Ropeta says, that “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.
She added that she comes from a middle class background from Jacobabad and wish to promote the idea that privileged women can serve in police and district courts.
“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 says.
Manisha is currently under training and soon will be posted in the crime-prone area of Lyari.
Manisha’s addresses in public speaks about the downtrodden and bizarre condition of women in Pakistan. Whereas she says that she wants to lead a feminization drive and encourage gender equality in the police force. Though, she mentioned her admiration to the job.
She has three other sisters who are apparently doctors and her younger brother who is on the way to accompany them as doctor.
When she was asked about that, what drove her in the direction to become a police officer, she replied that, I had failed by one mark to clear MBBS entrance examinations. “I then told my family I was taking a degree in physical therapy but at the same time I prepared for Sindh Public Service Commission examination and passed that getting 16th position among 468 candidates.”
Ropeta is raised by her mother in Karachi after her father’s death when she was 13.
