The Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project (KSP-UNICEF)

Overview
As elsewhere in the country, Karnataka too is being faced by a series of critical challenges related to gender discrimination and violence. Trafficking of women and children for both sexual exploitation as well as labour, is rampant across the state, with Bangalore city proving to be a hub for cross-country illegal activities by traffickers as well as, lately, terrorists. Gender-based discrimination is not limited to so called ‘backward’ districts; according to recent reports, the sex ratio in ‘developed’ districts of the state is also abysmally low. For instance, the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) of children in the 0-6 age group is as low as 880 females to 1000 males in Chikkodi taluk, Belgaum and 915 to 1000 in Srirangapatna, Mandya district; both considered ‘developed’ areas of the state (M Radhika, Tehelka, 2005). The brutal rape and murder of a woman BPO employee in December 2005 only brought to light an already existing environment of fear and insecurity for women and children across the state. In this context, it seems more urgent than ever that the police – as well as other departments of the government and civil society organisations – come together in an attempt to prevent and respond sensitively to such issues and situations.

The Karnataka State Police – UNICEF Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police (GSPP) Project came into being after a long history of commitment to such issues by the Karnataka Police. In fact, the Bangalore City Police was one of the first in the country to administer sensitisation programmes for police personnel on issues related to child protection and the Convention on the Rights of Children, from 1993. In mid-2001, UNICEF supported an exploratory workshop on gender issues with Bangalore police personnel, where it was felt that a long-term process of attitudinal change towards such issues could be initiated through training. Since then, a training module on gender and power relations, with a focus on violence against women and children and related to police procedures and attitudes, has been created through interviews and over 10 pilot workshops across the state, with the active participation and suggestions of over 500 police personnel from constables to the Director General himself.

In fact, we have had the unstinting support of all the Director General and Inspector Generals of Police, KSP, from the year 2003 to present, as well as the Commissioners of Police, Bangalore City, in the same period. Interestingly, the recently retired Director General and Inspector General of Police, KSP, Mr. B.S. Sial, spent ‘Women’s Day’, 8 March 2006, telling 450 probationary constables at a training school near Bangalore that ‘Women’s Day’ was not a concept to be restricted to one day, but to be observed throughout the year. The present DG-IG, Mr KR Srinivasan, then similarly addressed them at the valedictory function of the workshop, three days later. The probationary constables later told the Coordinating Team that the first impact of the project on them had been the rare privilege of being addressed by so many senior officers, including the DG-IG!

In 2002, with the support of the then Joint Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City Police, Dr. Ajai Kumar Singh, under the aegis of then Commissioner of Police, Mr. T. Madiyal, a process of creating a training module on gender sensitisation and violence against women and children was initiated. It became a project of the Karnataka State Police in joint partnership with UNICEF (Hyderabad) in 2003, with Dr. Ajai Kumar Singh becoming the first nodal officer as Additional Director General of Police (R&T). With his tenure as Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City, till June 2006, and Mr. Neelam Achutha Rao as the present Commissioner, we have had the benefit of working with committed officers at the city level. Similarly, the three ADGPs who have served as State Nodal Officers for the project – Dr. Ajai Kumar Singh, Mr S.T. Ramesh and Dr. D.V. Guruprasad (present nodal officer) – the GSPP project has been nurtured and led by three extremely focussed officers. We have also had other extremely dedicated officers who have helped us, including the Joint Commissioner, Admin/Crime (nodal officer, women and children’s issues, Bangalore city) and all the Superintendents of Police and Inspector-Generals of the ranges in which workshops were held.

A pool of ‘Police Trainers’ from the police station level of personnel (constables to Inspectors) has also been created, to make this transformatory process sustainable in the long term through a system of peer training and learning. In addition, a programme of model or ‘people-friendly police stations’ has been initiated in Bangalore City (and is being undertaken in some districts), in order to improve the relationship between the police and the public, through the facilitation by NGOs/women’s and children’s organisations. It seeks to make the police station (PS) a place that all vulnerable groups, particularly women and children, can access with confidence and dignity, especially in cases of violence.

The main thrust of the Gender Sensitisation and People-friendly Police Project thus is a periodic implementation of workshops focusing on violence against women and children, facilitated largely by police personnel themselves, and accompanying the creation of People-friendly Police Stations, which are partnerships between police stations, NGOs and the local communities.

Ultimately, it is envisaged that community representatives and the police station will be able to work together on issues concerning their area, with support from different local organisations. We hope that this process will create greater awareness and prevention of the incidence of gender-based violence (including trafficking of women and children) as well as demonstrate the Karnataka State Police’s commitment to combating such violence, and being more ‘people-friendly’ in general.

How was the training module created?
The process of creating this module began with a documentation of the procedures and interactions of the police, in cases related to women and children. This study was carried out in 10 police stations in Bangalore, for a period of 1 1/2 months. The key findings included:

• Very few cases, related to women and children, were actually registered
• ‘Counselling’ was often seen as a substitute for registration
• The prevalent attitude of most officers was to minimise the incidence of violence and to deny the right of the complainant to legal justice (this included cases where the complainant insisted on registration, but the police did not support the request)
• While many police personnel were more sympathetic towards children’s issues, their responses to women were traditional and patriarchal
• Violence against women and children was not seen as part of the ‘mainstream’ activities of the local police station, but were most often referred to the women’s police station.
• The limited powers of the women police stations as well as the abdication of responsibility by the system overall, led to further injustice to complainants.

These findings were shared with senior police personnel and a core group of support organisations and individuals. Based on these findings and consultations, a draft module was prepared and field-tested in over 10 regional workshops across the state, including at the Karnataka Police Academy, Bangalore city and ranges like Bijapur, Raichur and Davangere.

The objective was to assess the content, structure and methodology of the draft module, as well as to identify suitable trainers. The feedback from these workshops were continuously incorporated into the module. Workshops at the Karnataka Police Academy and elsewhere then concentrated on intensive ‘training for trainers’ and succeeded in creating a pool of over 100 police personnel committed to, and enthusiastic about, this gender sensitisation project. All these police trainers see the project as an opportunity not only to change the ways in which cases of violence are handled and investigated, but also as a personal opportunity to upgrade their skills and interests and become more effective police people.

Presently, the module comprises the following sessions:

• Gender and power relations, and the institutional analysis of violence
• Violence against women – laws and procedures
• Violence against children – laws and procedures
• Counselling skills used by the police
• Trafficking of women and children – issues, laws and procedures
• HIV/AIDS and police responsibilities
• Public perceptions and police behaviour

The module is designed to be participatory, working with 40-45 police personnel (both women and men) from the level of constables to inspectors. Future modules that are planned include particular investigation procedures and skills for cases of violence against women and children, and panel discussions of the different elements of the criminal justice system – the judiciary, public prosecutors, medical and forensic officers, the police – that can lead to integrated changes in the system.

The process so far:
Based on the module mentioned above (available in both English and Kannada) alongwith the committed group of police trainers, gender sensitisation workshops for police personnel have been undertaken at city and range/district levels; 29 such workshops have been held in the last two years, with 1,415 police personnel (both men and women) being covered [statistics as of November 2006]. In addition, legal advocacy workshops for the organisations involved in the People-friendly Police Station programmes at the city level have been held, along with over 50 community outreach programmes. One of the strengths of this project has been the process of building awareness through a process of police station level personnel working with community groups with the facilitation and support of committed NGOs. Finally, policy level advocacy has taken place, with the personal commitment of the nodal officers in charge of the project, and support from other senior officers.

The latest focus of the GSPP project has been to incorporate the messages of gender sensitisation and the issues around gender-based violence in the curricula of training schools. Beginning late 2005 and continuing into 2006, we have been doing workshops at training schools covering 327 probationary Sub-Inspectors, and 754 probationary constables. In all, in the last two years, over 2,800 personnel from over 400 police stations across Karnataka have been trained (the state has at present, approximately 75,000 personnel and 809 police stations). All police stations in Bangalore City have at least one trained person [statistics as of November 2006].

The SPARC checklist was created by the project team to assess police stations on the extent of their responsiveness and sensitivity to women and children. In fact, in January 2005, a team of representatives from women’s and children’s organisations in Bangalore visited different police stations and recommended one for the ‘Most Women and Child Friendly Police Station award’ instituted by the Commissioner of Police.

Future directions of the project
The next phase of this project is envisaged to be a deepening and broadening of the first phase, across the state, as well across the cadres: the focus will be on both enhancing the capacity of the constablary as well as challenging the Inspectors and other middle-level officers to demonstrate their commitment to preventing violence against women and children through more people-friendly police stations and processes. A geographical focus will also be on the northern districts of Karnataka, as they are increasingly becoming conduits and catchement areas for trafficking networks. Overall, the main objectives will be:
Advocacy and Communication: positive stories of pro-active and sensitive policing will be disseminated in all media, to help build the morale of the police, acknowledge those who have made a paradigm shift in their attitudes and actions, as well as change the image and perception of the police amongst the public.
Capacity building and increased ownership: with the senior police officers, such as SPs and DCPs, taking greater ownership of the process, their commitment, alongwith the work of the police trainers (most of whom are extremely dedicated and enthusiastic) will ensure that there will increased ownership of the project through the next year. In addition, a pool of local resource persons will be created, trained by the present facilitators of the project, in order to make this process sustainable in the long term.
Convergence: the project will be working closely with other UNICEF projects in the state (especially on child labour) to ensure that the Departments of Police, Women and Child Development, Labour and others, can work together effectively to ensure the highest possible support to women’s and children’s rights.

There is thus a long term commitment from the police department as well as individual officers towards a project such as this. It is believed that the participatory process of creating the training process, especially the module itself, along with its interactive and innovative training methods, will help the police in enhancing their system of response and reparation towards all citizens suffering from different forms of violence. It is a matter of great pride for the Karnataka State Police and UNICEF (Hyderabad) that this module has been recommended for all-India usage by the Government of India, and is in the process of being suitably adapted. The commitment to this project includes creating systems of review and monitoring, and continued capacity building and support to the pool of police resource persons as well as external resource persons who can contribute their efforts to this process. It is hoped that this sense of ownership – from both police and community – will contribute towards long term sustainability and effectiveness in preventing violence, and supporting those who seek justice.