A crack company of women police commandos – the first such batch in India – has just completed training and is now part of the most elite police division in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The company of 151 women was commissioned by state chief minister J Jayalalitha at the end of a gruelling three-month training course. I met a group of them kitted out in navy blue uniforms with brilliant white gaiters on the shooting range of the police commando headquarters, where they trained and will live, in the state capital, Madras. “We trained in shooting, weapons handling, swimming, rowing, rock-climbing, rappelling and horse-riding,” says S Pradeepa, a native of the Nilgiri hills in the west of the state. She has been in the police for six years, but this was something different. Full Story