A special campaign was started in West Jaipur recently that aims to provide safety and security to all women living in this part of the ‘Pink City’. Aptly named ‘Police For U’, this campaign was led by the then DCP West Jaipur, Ms. Richa Tomar, and it aims not just to ensure safety of women but, also, value their contribution to society.

In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, IPS officer Richa Tomar, who has now been promoted and posted as SP Jhalawar, shared details about this campaign.

IDENTIFYING EVE TEASING HOTSPOTS

SP Tomar said that as the first step of the campaign, her department identified the hotspots where crimes against women, like eve teasing, were rampant. Police records were used to determine the locations where these cases had generated the most FIRs and, accordingly, necessary steps were taken.

Also, feedback centres were set up in public areas where a feedback form was kept, where they asked for opinions from the local women about the locations where they felt unsafe, why they felt unsafe, and what kind of police action do they anticipate. After taking note of the information in the forms, the police segregated those areas and started their investigations.

Ms. Tomar said, “During the investigations, many things were unveiled as these heinous crimes often take place under the table. Eve teasing situations are rarely recorded since women are reluctant to talk about such events.”

She also said that it is unfortunate that women have to often decide to go out according to the time and not according to their will. That they have to think whether to move out in the evening hours or not.

POLICE INTERVENTION

West Jaipur Police intervened after recognising the problems, looked into the situations closely, and took appropriate actions to get things under control.

They made sure that the locations where women felt insecure had CCTV cameras and boosted the number of officers present in certain locations. They also used the assistance of local residents to raise funds to put street lights in the dark areas. All these actions brought a sense of security for the local women.

Ms. Tomar said that the two-way communication helped the women to come up freely with their issues and the police intervention gave them confidence and motivated them to talk more freely about these issues without any hesitation.

ENSURING SAFETY IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

It is a fact that women from small towns and cities move to urban centres like Jaipur in search of employment or to pursue their education. Once they leave their safe territory, they are exposed to a lot of security risks in the new place, with no safety net and no support system.

According to Ms. Tomar, women’s security is breached the most when they venture outside of their personal space and use public transportation. In such situations, it is crucial for the police to instil confidence in them. And that is the primary goal of the ‘Police For U’ initiative. To reassure the public in general, and women in particular, that police is there to handle their safety-related issues, so that they can travel freely anywhere at any time.