Call for attitudinal change among women police

By K. T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, AUG. 20. The Tamil Nadu Government's major initiative to ``resensitise women police'' to women's problems got off today with senior officers driving home the point that there is ``need for an attitudinal change'' among the personnel.

Aimed at equipping the women police to meet the existing and emerging challenges so that they would present a better account of themselves, the idea of ``resensitising them'' emerged from the Chief Minister, Ms.Jayalalithaa.

Picking up the message, the authorities decided that refresher courses would stand the personnel in good stead and accordingly the programme has been organised at the Police Training College (PTC), Ashok Nagar here.

The comprehensive programme has been drawn up to create a greater awareness, in batches, among the nearly 4,200 women police personnel from Grade II constables to Deputy Superintendents, of an array of issues including women's status and empowerment, police response to women in distress, counselling, role identity of the women police, women and law and investigation of crimes against women.

Unlike as were the other refresher courses, this programme will perhaps witness, a welcome change, as the sessions would be handled by experts on women's issues, NGOs, doctors, lawyers, human rights activists and psychologists and only a few police officers.

What is the need for the whole exercise and the contents of the programme? This point was highlighted by the Director-General of Police (Training), Mr. S. Ganapathy, the Inspector-General of Police, Railways, Ms. G. Thilagavathy, the DIG, Training, Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, and the PTC principal, Mr. M. C. Sarangan.

Presenting a sociological perspective, they explained that women had to face life-long problems in a society where streaks of male chauvinism were still visible. The women police was started in the late 1980s with the aim of humanising the police force and helping it deal better with problems of women.

Was there a perceptible change thereafter? An honest introspection would reveal there was a big gap between the people's expectations and the police performance. The programme would help to identify the shortcomings and initiate remedial measures. The personnel's attitudinal behaviour had to be constantly reoriented and their skills upgraded. Against this background, the personnel should enrich their knowledge on how to deal with various issues pertaining to women. The message was clear that the women police personnel ``must become an agent of social change''.

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Section  : Southern States
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