Indonesia was challenged Tuesday to end its humiliating practice of subjecting female police recruits to virginity tests.

Human Rights Watch said the "degrading and discriminatory" practice known as the "two-finger test" was widespread in the country.

The rights group based its report on interviews with police officers and applicants in six separate cities.

India's national police force jobs website states: "In addition to medical and physical tests, women who want to be policewomen must also undergo virginity tests.

"So all women who want to become policewomen should keep their virginity."

The statement contradicted police spokesman Major General Ronny Sompie's claim that the test was merely to ensure applicants were free from sexually transmitted diseases.

Mr Sompie urged people not to "respond negatively" to the two-finger test - which is supposed to determine whether a woman's hymen is intact, though medical professionals say it is useless at actually determining virginity.

He added that both male and female recruits received blood tests for STDs, undermining his assertion that the virginity tests were needed for this purpose.

"All this is done in a professional manner and did not harm the applicants," he insisted.

But a 24-year-old applicant told the charity that the test "really hurt" and that she "feared after they performed it I would not be a virgin any more."

Human Rights Watch has documented abusive virginity tests in several countries, including Egypt, India and Afghanistan.