Chandigarh, February 22: Sensitizing police personnel on howto considerately respond to cases of violence against women and provide supportand protection to the women, Ms. Gurpreet Deo, ADGP, Community Affairs Divisionand Public Grievances said that prompt police action in the cases of violenceagainst women can prove to be imperative to easily crack such cases. She wasspeaking on the topic 'Response of law enforcement agencies in case of womenaggrieved by violence' during the second phase of the state level virtualtraining workshop organized by the Punjab Social Security, Women and ChildDevelopment Department on ‘Sakhi One Stop Centre'.
Ms. Deo said that although state police has been swiftlyacting to provide relief to the victims of violence against women, but manysuch cases were not reported due to lack of awareness among women about theirrights. Stressing upon the need to sensitize women about their fundamentalrights, the ADGP categorically said that ‘Sakhi One Stop Centre' (OSCs) arebeing integrated with Toll free women helpline number-181 so that womenaffected by violence could be referred to OSCs. Apart from this, Ms. Deo statedthat a dedicated women helpdesk in every police station is the need of thehour.
On the topic of 'Role of Police in Sensitively HandlingCases of Physical and Emotional Violence against Women: Learnings from BestPractices in India', former Director General of Police, Government of Haryana,Dr. K.P. Singh said that the emotional support of the police personnel giveswomen who are aggrieved by violence, hope for justice, and infuses them withwill-power to fight against any form of injustice including violence. He saidthat for prevailing the sense of safety among the affected women, aspects todeploy women police personnel should also be considered.
To enable trainees to appropriately respond to the medicalneeds of women affected by violence, Dr. K.P.S. Kushwaha, Senior Faculty, LokNayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology and ForensicScience, Ministry of Home Affairs said that evidence collection should befocused on scientific methods so that the culprit could be brought within theambit of law and justice. He discussed the best practices for paramedical staffduring medico-legal examination of the survivor in sexual assault cases.
Dr. Manmeet Kaur, Professor of Health Promotion in thePGIMER, School of Public Health and Professorial Fellow, The George Institutefor Global Health, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia also spokeon the theme 'Recognizing and addressing violence against women within healthcare system', which is an often neglected yet very important aspect of violenceagainst women and focuses on spaces outside the household where women can betraumatized. Dr. Reetinder Kohli, Former Chairwoman, Indian Women Network(IWN), Chandigarh gave tips to help the trainees understand the essentialelements and practices of psychological counselling of women affected byviolence, during the session 'How to establish a rapport with women aggrievedby violence'. Dr. Nayanika Singh, Assistant Professor, Mahatma Gandhi StateInstitute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), Chandigarh said that the utmostduty of the OSCs staff is to make efforts to normalize the traumatized women.She spoke on regulating women emotionally who have been victimized by physicaland emotional violence, which can prove to be a turning point to solve the caseat the earliest.
Giving concluding remarks, Mrs. Raji P. Shrivastava,Principal Secretary, Social Security, Women and Child Development said that thestate government has set up ‘Sakhi One Stop Centres’ (OSCs) in all the 22districts to provide integrated support and assistance to women affected byviolence. These OSCs have been successfully running with dedicated staff andproviding required support to the women in need.
Director-cum-Special Secretary Mr. Vipul Ujjwal said thatOSCs are being run by the department to facilitate access to an integratedrange of services including medical, legal and psychological support forvictims. During these sessions, question and answer rounds were also held andthe queries raised by the trainees were resolved by the experts ofinternational repute. Ms. Priyanka Choudhary, Governance Fellow, DGR&PG,who has been involved in conceptualizing and organizing the workshop, has alsopresented a vote of thanks.