Udaipur : In a bid to make women feel more secure and reach out to those in distress, Banswara police has launched an all women scooter sqads to patrol the streets. Tejaswini Gautam, the new Banswara SP set off the lady patrolling team to work with a green flag from the police line. ” The pilot project of lady patrol team was launched in Udaipur in 2016 which was a great hit. Later it was adopted in several other cities including Alwar, Jaipur etc. In the series we have launched three teams on three scooters in the first phase. Hooligans, reckless bikers and eve-teasers are our prime targets” Tejaswini told Udaipur Kiran.
The initiative by Banswara police should help, as the number of complaints against harassment remain low, despite the incidence of such events increasing. The women squad would be beneficial for women who feel apprehensive approaching a police station. Sexual violence against women is ingrained in society in a way that it is perceived as part and parcel of being a woman. ” Incidents of street harrassment in particular, largely, go unreported because they are seen as minor offenses, especially when no physical violence has occured. Women chose to ignore such incidents sometimes fearing a backlash from the perpetrator. Our motive is to enhance the approachability and hence the lady cops would patrol around the city streets specially those areas frequented by the fairer sex including school colleges and market places” the officer said.
The cops would also coordinate with the traffic police informing them about the reckless drivers and bikers causing nuisance to pedestrians. The police response time to eve teasing, molests and related crimes is also expected to reduce with the new initiate. The comparatively small proportion of lady constables in Banswara and budgetary provisions for two wheelers are presently major constraints in taking the women scooter sqads to a mass level. ” If more scooters are allocated and we have enough number of lady cops, the project would surely get an expand” the SP said. Additional SP Chandandan Barhat, DySP Ghanshyam Sharma and Brijraj Singh and other officers were present on the occasion.