New Delhi, November 1
The women personnel in Delhi Police have been charged up with more and more active roles with successful pro women police initiatives like ‘Tejaswini’ in the North West District and national capital’s first pink booth and Veera Squad of Central District.
While ‘Tejaswini’ has been the brainchild of DCP North-West Usha Rangnani and the pink booth has been conceptualized for Delhi by DCP Central District Shweta Chauhan.
The Delhi Police has six women IPS officers supervising the districts and now the women police personnel are also taking key roles in law and order and curbing crimes.
The 'Tejaswini' initiative was started by the Delhi Police on July in northwest district to curb crime against women and to ensure their safety and security. Under this initiative, 46 women constables were deployed in the crime-infested and sensitive beats, including JJ clusters of Jahangirpuri, Shakurpur and Pitampura residential areas, Bhalaswa village, market and mall complexes, metro stations, schools and colleges.
Besides performing regular duties in their beat along with their male counterparts, they also regularly perform intensive and visible patrolling on ERVs, QRTs, motorcycle and scooter to ensure safety and security of area women and respond promptly to crime against women.
The presence of women police on roads instils security among women to confidence to approach police in times of emergencies or otherwise. This creates a conducive atmosphere among the citizens that police is securing the city.
According to the police, 243 senior citizens and women were helped while 13 self-defence camps were organised for school and college girls. The percentage of street PCR calls declined by 23 per cent while there was a 31 percent decrease in women-related PCR calls.
After the inception of Tejaswini, it was observed that the women police officers have played a major role to curb crime against women in the city's northwest district where it solved 116 cases and arrested 137 criminals in the area.
The officials observed that the women cops has had deeper reach in the crime pockets and there was significant growth in its scope and work.
DCP North West Usha Rangnani stated that these constables provide the 'at the doorstep policing' for identification of needy or distressed and subsequent redressal of grievances of women within the community. This initiative is aimed to reach out to women belonging to sections of the society, female senior citizens and also to safeguard the rights and dignity of women and children in this district.
One of the ‘Tejaswinis’, woman police constable Kiran of Bharat Nagar police station became an iconic face of brave and daring women in northwest district when she single-handedly chased and pinned down a snatcher while she was patrolling in the area. Today, Kiran is fondly called as "Asha Ki Kiran" among women in the beat she serves.
According to the official data, street PCR calls have declined by 23 per cent and women related calls have decreased by 31 per cent. The senior police officials had deployed 46 women beat constables in the sensitive areas of various police stations of the district.
These areas include clusters of Jahangirpuri, Shakarpur residential areas, EU and NU blocks of Pitampura, Bhalaswa village, H and F block of Ashok Vihar, Netaji Subhash Place Complex and metro station, Polytechnic GGS College, Club Road, and Som Bazaar of Shalimar Bagh, Jhule Lal Mandir, Shakti Nagar Extension, Laxmi Bai College, Satyawati Colony Bharat Nagar, etc.
The success of Tejaswini was recently celebrated to give more encouragement to the women police at a programme ‘Suraksha se Vikas’ where Tejaswinins were applauded and even given certificates for their work by the Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana.
The initiative of ‘Pink Booths’ has been one of its kind and the first ever in Delhi Police.
For the first time, the Delhi Police have introduced ‘pink booths’ in the most crime-prone areas of the central district to curb crimes against women and ensure active participation of women police.
DCP (Central) Shweta Chauhan conceptualizd ‘Prashakti Beat Squad’ and ‘Veera Squad’ in the Central district specially comprising of women police. The squad shave been deployed to control street crime, crime against women and children, perform intensive and visible patrolling in sensitive areas on ERVs, QRTs, motorcycles, and scooters to control crime and make streets safer.
A pink booth manned by women staff has been set up at the Karol Bagh police station for women’s grievances and the policewomen will take immediate legal action on their complaints.
DCP Central Shweta Chauhan stated that crime prevention and detection, which were earlier considered male bastions will now have active participation of women officers at every level. The women police of all ranks will play an important role in crime prevention, detection and investigation of crimes such as robbery, snatching, pickpocketing, burglary and organised crime.
Chauhan’s vision is that women officers are mostly deployed to tackle crime against women but it should not be limited to that. They should be tackle hard-core crime and criminals, as well as participate in community policing.
In addition to this, after DCP Chauhan’s initiation, women police have been to Cyber Cell and Special Staff of central district.
