Dates: 1st February to 3rd February 2007

The 3-day training workshop organised for Police personnel of Bagalkote district was a great success, particularly because of the commitment and support of the SP, Mr. Ramesh Harihar, and his team.

Bagalkote has 19 police stations; there were 1 male HC and 1 male PC from each of the 19 Police Stations (PS). The only 2 Women ASIs in the district were deputed along with 8 WHCs and 12 WPCs. A total of 60 police personnel participated in the workshop, except for the few who were from Bagalkote town arrangements were made for the police personnel who came from the other police stations in the district.

Mr. Ramesh Harihar, SP (Bagalkote), inaugurated the workshop. The Dy. SP (District Armed Reserve), Mr. Jewergal (Police Inspector), Mr. Papanna (Police Inspector) and Mr. Srinivas (District Information & Publicity Officer) were also present at the inaugural ceremony. In his address to the participants, the SP said that women come to the police station as a last resort and very often go away feeling dejected because of the manner in which they are treated. Most often the sentry on duty does not let her in or she is made to sit outside the police station as asked to wait for the Sub-inspector who has gone out. He asked the police present to take personal interest in each case, in the same way in which they would call a neighbouring police station and request the officer present there to take personal interest if it were a relative or someone they know going to that station. He ended on the note that after this workshop, each of the officers present at the workshop should be able to change not only their attitude but also the manner in which they handle cases of women and children.

This workshop had two new local resource persons. Ms. Sunandha of Mahila Samakhya handled the session on “Gender relations: an institutional analysis of power”. She spoke about gender biases, discrimination and violence. Some of the common arguments that came up were that ‘women are women’s worst enemy’, the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law problems and even though women are given the space, they do not take the initiative to come forward. The concept of ‘Power’ – who in society generally has power, what are the factors that contribute to power and the abuse of power was discussed by the project team to help the participants understand and analyse the causes for the structural discrimination against girls and women.

On the second day, sessions on laws and procedures vis-à-vis violence against women and children were presented. Both sessions were much appreciated as the participants had no previous knowledge of the new laws for women and children and all of them said that the sessions were very helpful. The third day the issue of ‘Trafficking in women & children – laws and procedures ‘ was discussed. The participants were not aware of the amended act (Immoral Traffic Prevention Act) that covers cases of trafficking. The attitude of the police towards sex workers, the objective of the act and the role of the police especially in cases of missing children was discussed.

Mr. Ramchandra Gunari handled the session on counselling skills in police work; the participants found the stress relieving exercises that he taught, very refreshing.

The workshop concluded on the 3rd evening with a valedictory function. Participants in their feedback were very positive about the workshop. They said that it was not only the content and the knowledge that that they gained, but the method in which they were made to understand each of the issues was much appreciated. They promised that on their return to the police stations, they would as far as possible implement what they have learnt in these 3 days and also share this knowledge with the others at the police stations.

(Report prepared by Rovina Bastian, GSPP Team)