Close on the heels of rise in the cases of incidents of crimes against women and the national outcry for stricter laws, the Bangalore police have come out with a set of new guidelines.
The guidelines were framed after a meeting of home minister R Ashok, senior police officials and representatives from 85 NGOs in the city recently.
Joint commissioner of police (Crime) B Dayanand told Express that the circular with the list of the advisories framed will be issued to all police stations in the city on January 1.
“The advisories contain the set of precautions women need to take and how the police department will help them to be safe. A special team, comprising police officials and experts, is conducting a survey across Bangalore’s geography and all the vulnerable areas will be identified. Streetlight facilities will be checked in these areas and the police stations will have to be on high alert at all times,” Dayanand said.
Further, the circular also mentions the two 24/7 helpline numbers which women in crisis can call.
“We have already launched the 1091 helpline number. We will be launching another toll-free helpline number soon. Based on suggestions received from all non-government organisations, top officials and people from the public domain, we have also listed out a set of precautions to be taken by women. The helpline will be active at all times and a team, comprising workers from the Vanita Sahaya Vani and police officials, will be ready to jump into action and will patrol the vulnerable areas,” the police officer said.
MNCs Under Radar
The police are also planning to meet representatives of all multinational companies, government offices and private companies to scrutinise their mechanisms to keep women workers safe.
“We will be meeting all the stakeholders from public and private companies, especially the multinational companies to inspect their work-place safety rules for women. We want to know if the rules in offices are being implemented and how effective they are,” Dayanand said. Even college campuses and areas surrounding educational institutions will be under strict police patrol.
“Every police station will have a help desk to handle cases of crime against women. A woman constable will be present at all the help desks and she will assist the officers in investigation of cases too. Instead of telling women to dress up in a particular way, we need to deal with the situation in a much more sensible way,” he added.
The police will undergo a three-day training programme to conducted by experts from different walks of life. The workshop will have training for all kinds of crimes against women.