Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, is ready to spring into action to help any woman in distress with its all-new police team, Pink Gasht, formed especially for women protection. Teams of policewomen patrol the squares and main markets of the city in new scooters and pink helmets provided to them. During this patrolling, the team reaches out to women to give them safety tips on how to keep safe and avoid crimes.They are also informed about the helpline and WhatsApp number on which they can call the police anytime.
The basic objective of this initiative is to create a fearless environment for women in the state and to motivate them to approach police anytime without hesitation. At the same time, the police also educate women about the necessary precautions to be taken regarding social media. This women-centric campaign of Raipur Police was promoted on social media and ‘Pink Gasht’ became one of the trending topics on micro blogging site, Twitter. This noble initiative not only benefit the women of Raipur but also help all the differently-abled people. During the patrolling, the disabled are also educated on how to give information in sign language.
Talking to Indian Masterminds, Raipur SSP Prashant Agarwal said that when the team of 152 policewomen will roam in the city, then the fear of women power will prevail on miscreants and criminals.
All women police officers and employees of Raipur Police will conduct 2-3 days awareness campaign once in a month and meet women from all sections of society. The police team will go to the market area, shopping malls, girls hostel and girls college etc. and listen to their problems. During the Pink Gasht campaign, Raipur Women Police will give safety tips to women on how to avoid crimes and will encourage them to contact the police without any hesitation in case of any untoward incident or any fear or apprehension.
Prashant Agarwal, a 2008-batch IPS officer and Raipur SSP, while talking to Indian Masterminds said that the aim of the Pink Patrol initiative is to create a fear-free environment in the city for women. “We want to make them aware how they can easily contact the police at any time. We will run this campaign every month. Right now, we have formed 15 teams for this, which includes 152 policewomen. All the teams have been given certain target areas. 3500 pamphlets, key rings and pens were distributed to make about 4000 women and children aware of our initiative. Also, the helpline numbers 94791-90167, 94791-91099 were publicized to contact the police anytime in case of any problem. Our team also taught karate to women for self-defense at many places.”
The benefits of this scheme are visible within no time as the police have started receiving calls from many areas. The police, on their part, took swift action and brought relief to the woman concerned. Pink patrol women helpline number 94791 90167 got a call on the night of 25 November from a worker at the New Bus Standat 2.50 am. He reported that a minor girl has been sitting there for a long time. On this information, the women’s team reached there and the minor girl was taken to a safe place and later handed over to her parents. On questioning, the girl told police that she hails from a city in Bastar division and got angry with her parents and left the house alone and reached Raipur New Bus Stand.
The initiative is already showing results and more and more people are reaching out to police on the helpline numbers. For Raipur women, it is a much welcome step – a police team especially for them, to which they can reach out for help at anytime anywhere.
