From the Deccan Herald, 25 June 2007

‘SENSITISING POLICE’
A camp to buff ‘people-friendly’ image of police

DH News Service, Bangalore:

“People think we are insensitive. That’s not true. Our’s is a very difficult job, but we try to help people in trouble,” noted a participant from the ‘khaki’ side.

A unique three-day workshop of writers and police personnel was held in the Armed Police Training School, Yelahanka, with the aim of “understanding each other” and sensitising the police on gender issues.

An initiative of the State police, Unicef and Saarathi (a Bangalore-based media organisation), the workshop concluded on Saturday.

Limitations
“I always thought that the police were insensitive and a bunch of crooks. I was scared of talking to a cop or going to a police station to register a complaint. But this workshop has opened my eyes. I understand them and their limitations now,” said Dr Shashikala Shivashankar, professor at Bhagwan Buddha College.

“People think we are insensitive. That’s not true. Our’s is a very difficult job, but we try to help people in trouble,” noted a participant from the ‘khaki’ side.

Tricky role
Said a lady assistant SI, “Often we are in a dilemma. Sometime back, a deaf-mute girl was raped. She told us something about the rapist in the sign language and it took us nearly two days to figure out the culprit.

When we traced him, her parents, worried at her getting pregnant, wanted her to marry her violator, but we intervened to stop the alliance”.

“On the other hand, we were also worried for the accused, because people had badly beaten him up before we could arrest him. We had to make sure that he was medically okay,” she added.

Brainwave
A brainwave of Additional DGP D V Guruprasad, the workshop was part of the Unicef-sponsored Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project that took off in 2001 in the State.

Useful interface
“We’ve been conducting gender sensitisation programmes for the past six years and have trained around 7,000 personnel in issues related to women and children,” Mr Guruprasad said.

“I hope the writers — eight participated — would now write about the positive work we do, which otherwise wouldn’t get any media attention. Also, the camp has come as a bonus; it helped the budding writers in khaki,” he quipped.

From The Hindu, 25 June 2007:

Bringing out the writers in police

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: “… I visited Dileep at the rehabilitation centre and was happy to see he was doing well. He had kicked the habit and was now helping others his age do the same…”

This was from one of the stories written by a woman assistant sub-inspector of police that was read out at the end of a three-day workshop at the Armed Police Training School here on Saturday. The unique “Writers’ workshop” for police personnel was organised under the Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police (GSPP) Project, which is a partnership between the Karnataka State Police and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

First time
As many as 10 police personnel, including police constables, head constables and assistant sub-inspectors, took part in the workshop. Such a workshop was being held for the first time in the country, said Anasuya Sengupta, State Coordinator, GSPP Project.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with Saarathi, a Bangalore-based media organisation. Noted writers interacted with police officials from across the State. “We thought it would be unique to bring together established writers and police personnel. Established writers also have a very lay view of the police system. The interaction helped police personnel learn the technicalities of writing so that they could try to write about the system from within it,” said Ms. Sengupta.

Follow-up
The workshop was not one of those that ended with just an interaction. “We have asked all the participants to go back and revise their work. We are looking forward to creating a pool of writing from the workshop. We hope to get their work published in the print media. We are also exploring the possibility of adapting their work to suit other media, such as plays for the radio or the theatre,” she added.

Yamuna Murthy, former Director of All India Radio (AIR) and theatre person, said that participating in the workshop had helped her realise the constraints and pressure under which the police work.

“There is a lot of prejudice among the public. Such workshops help dispel the wrong preconceived notions and show the police in a more humane light,” she said.

Shobha N. Bhosale, an assistant sub-inspector of police, Jamkhandi Town Police Station, Bagalkote, said that the workshop had helped empower police personnel with writing skills.

“We can now write, which will serve as an outlet for our thoughts. It will also help the public realise the kind of pressure we work under and will bring us closer,” she said.

Ms. Sengupta said that the GSPP Project began in 2001, and training for police personnel at all levels began in 2003.

“During the course of the project, we realised that police personnel are very creative. Such workshops will help them channel that creativity and share their experiences in a skilful manner, while maintaining confidentiality,” she added.