06.28.07
Writing by and of the police…
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.
Rahima said,
August 4, 2007 at 2:27 am
I wish this model would be replicated in Gujarat.The police force here I think really needs intervention in terms of just, unbiased and gender sensitive law enforcement.
I think that the Police force all over the country should consider the case of Gujarat as how not to be.
As a feminist I demonise the police all the time.But initiatives like these need to be replicated to show what civilians and the Social sector can do to intervene.
We all understand that the police are under pressure, and that their work is immensely challenging and worthy of praise.It is also significant in how much responsibility we place on government oganisations like the police.Their role is crucial for the lives of people, especially in the case of communally sensitive regions like Gujarat.
And work like this project can go a long way in starting the dialogue between common people and the police.
Well done, and I hope that there are people out there who will come forward and take this up!
shivlaing said,
August 12, 2007 at 3:54 pm
shivaling bellanki
peoplefriendlypolice said,
September 1, 2007 at 4:17 am
Thank you, Rahima, for your support of this endeavour. We are more than happy to share our learnings with anyone who might be interested. We are also conscious that these efforts will always be a work in progress, for both the police and the public at large, anywhere in the country; a sensitive, humane approach to law enforcement and justice will always be our aim.