Mumbai, Sep 22 (IANS): In wake of the brutal rape-cum-murder of a woman in Mumbai's Sakinaka, the Congress' Maharashtra unit on Wednesday demanded that women security guards should be appointed in all housing societies to ensure women's safety.

In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, state Congress President Nana Patole said incidents of growing violence against women is a matter of serious concern and needs more attention in the wake of the Sakinaka episode.

"Women security personnel, along with males, should be mandatorily appointed in all housing societies or complexes in the state as a deterrent, and a right step in the matter of women's safety," he said.

The Congress chief pointed out that Maharashtra has a reputation of being a trendsetter and such a move could spur other states to follow suit as an important step to safeguard women.

Official sources said that both private and police women security personnel are the norm at various locations like the airport, government offices, institutions, luxury hotels, and some corporates too, mainly to frisk or screen women visitors.

"However, since the security of housing societies is normally handled by private security agencies, they arrange to deploy women security personnel depending on specific requests made by some residential complexes, as they need to make special arrangements for them," said the official requesting anonymity.

There are an estimated 90,000-plus registered housing societies in the state, of which the highest, around 60,000 are in Mumbai and surroundings, while the rest are spread across other cities like Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik, etc.