THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Police Department, which plays the mediator in many a family dispute, is now setting up a counselling centre. The Family Crime Prevention Counselling Centre is to be inaugurated on Thursday by State Police Chief K S Balasubramanian.
According to DCP (Law and Order) Ajeetha Begum, the Police Department has been facilitating counselling services even before the centre came into being. She says, “Since we deal with family dispute petitions on a daily basis, we had been using the services of a counsellor for some time now. The counsellor, who is not a Police Department personnel, has been talking to the aggrieved parties to resolve their issues. The new centre further facilitates the process, as now there is a devoted office facility.”
Despite a rise in the number of family disputes, there are not too many counselling services, especially for the financially backward communities. The Nirbhaya project of the Social Justice Department has been running a counselling centre in all district headquarters. In Thiruvananthapuram, the centre is in Poojappura. An official in the Department said that this centre aims to protect the rights of women and children from the lower economic strata.