1st audit of all-women police stations in Haryana

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27

Five years after the all-women police stations were set up in all districts of Haryana to provide a congenial environment for women complainants, the first-ever audit to assess their performance and effectiveness is being carried out across the state.

The assessment, which is likely to be completed by the end of next month, is aimed at analysing the public perception of women police stations and map the awareness of police initiatives as also to understand the experiences and problems faced by those working at the “mahila thanas” in relation to those at the regular police stations in dealing with crimes against women and children.

“Initially, the opinion within the police on the setting up of women police stations was divided, though it is an old concept in policing. However, the Haryana Government believed it was a much-needed intervention, given Haryana’s high incidence of crime against women. While the initial focus was to expand and increase coverage, we want to consolidate on performance standards and user satisfaction. Though episodic information by way of positive and not-so-positive feedback keeps coming in, this idea of a performance audit has been on our mind and carrying out a scientific study to establish effectiveness will help us serve the users better,” Haryana DGP, Manoj Yadava, said.

An initiative of the Women’s Safety Cell of the Haryana Police, this performance audit is being carried out in association with the Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates and the Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Ashoka University. An MoU was signed between the Department and the university earlier this month.

“The study will be carried out in 10 districts of the state and we are likely to have a performance report by the end of July. The idea is to identify factors hindering optimal functioning and take corrective steps, if needed, to improve their effectiveness,” ADGP (CAW), Kala Ramachandran, said.

During the course of the survey, personnel of the women police stations and regular police stations will be interviewed, while feedback will be taken from the complainants.

“We have begun with the process of interviewing the stakeholders. These are likely to be completed latest by mid-July after which the data collected through questionnaires will be analysed,” says Meghna Kaladi, CMGGA, adding that the CMGGAs in the 10 districts had been involved in the entire exercise.

In a state which has one of the worst sex ratios and crime against women is consistently high, these all-women police stations, seen as one-stop shops for all crimes against women, were rolled out by the Manohar Lal Khattar government in the first year of his first term in government on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

Presently, there are 33 women police stations in the state and 239 help desks have been set up in conventional police stations specifically to deal with crime against women and children.

Gauging the public mood

The assessment, which is likely to be completed by the end of July, is aimed at analysing the public perception of women police stations and map the awareness of police initiatives as also to understand the experiences and problems faced by those working at the “mahila thanas” in relation to those at regular police stations

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