Woman Constable Recruitment: Sri Lanka Police Caps Age Limit For Applicants At 24, Not 28

A post has been circulating across TikTok and Facebook, claiming that the maximum age for people to apply to join the Sri Lanka Police as a woman constable is 28 years. 

Newschecker decided to look into the claim as confusion may arise in terms of the age limits, given that the Sri Lanka Police has previously recruited woman constables with an age limit of 30 years. 

Evidence

1. Since all state job vacancies are first published in the government gazette, we searched whether any recent notifications had advertised job vacancies for women constables. We found that the most recent job vacancy for women constables was published on March 27, 2026 with May 8, 2026 as the deadline to apply. Upon looking at the requirements, we noticed that the age range for applicants looking to be women constables is 18 to 24 years.

2. We further looked at the Sri Lanka Police website, which lists all vacancies on their website’s ‘Join Us’ section. Under the ‘Woman Police Constable’ role, the age was again stated as 18 to 24 years.

3. On April 23, 2026 the Sri Lanka Police also made a Facebook post in all three languages to clarify certain matters related to several vacancies that they have advertised. They specifically refer to the role of woman police constable and reiterate the applicants’ age range to be from 18 to 24 years. 

Thus, we were able to conclude that the social media posts claiming that the age limit for applicants who wish to be women constables is 28 years are false. 

Context

On January 30, 2026 the Sri Lanka Police media spokesperson Inspector General of Police (IGP) Priyantha Weerasuriya stated that the department is working with a shortfall of approximately 32,000 officers, and that this has been affecting the overall performance and efficiency of the department. Later, on February 26, 2026, the Sri Lanka Police stated that the shortfall of personnel has increased to 40,000, and that they will be looking to fill 20,000 of these vacancies in 2026. As such, to fill these vacancies and protect the law and order of the country, the police is carrying out a large-scale recruitment process. 

Verdict

Social media posts claiming that the maximum age for people to apply to join the Sri Lanka Police as woman constables is 28 years are false. The accurate maximum age is 24 years, as per the gazette notification and the Sri Lanka Police website and social media.

FAQs 

Q1. What do the social media posts say? 
The posts include a graphic with a photograph of a woman constable in the Sri Lanka Police, and state the list of basic requirements applicants need to fulfil in order to apply. 

Q2. What does the post specify as the age range for applicants?
18 to 28 years 

Q3. What is the correct age range for applicants?
18 to 24 years

Our Sources

Gazette Notification No. 2482 of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, published on March 27, 2026
Vacancy for Women Constables, published on the Sri Lanka Police website, published on March 27, 2026
Facebook post by the verified profile of the Sri Lanka Police, April 23, 2026