Capacity-building of Police Personnel through Gender Sensitization Workshops / Trainings 

by Sutapa Sanyal

NAVCHETNA: “NEW CONSCIOUSNESS”

Capacity-building of Police Personnel through Gender Sensitization Workshops / Trainings

“The fight is won in the training”- Eddie Alvarez

The Issue and the Response

With the plethora of social legislations being framed in the country for the security and dignity of women and the requirement of a gender-sensitive behaviour towards the victims it became imperative to design a program wherein the police personnel would undergo gender-sensitization and legal awareness sessions.

Uttar Pradesh Police Mahila Samman Prakoshth has held several gender sensitization trainings and workshops under this programme where key police personnel from constables to their senior officers are trained in small groups regarding laws related to crime against women, like dowry deaths, acid attacks, domestic violence, sexual harassment, voyeurism, stalking, kidnapping, rape, human trafficking etcetera.

Police personnel are also trained in processes like methods of inquiry/investigation, nuances of reporting crimes against women, the provisions of the Indian legal system, interaction with the various stakeholders and several other key parameters that result in their professional capacity-building

Like charity, proper behaviour too begins from home, that is a police station. Hence special emphasis is laid on police behaviour towards victims who come to the police station as well as communication skills so that the UP Police is able to give out a strong message that a police station is women and child-friendly where there are gender-sensitive police personnel.

In each session, we carry out group activities where police personnel ask questions, share their experiences with each other and discuss ways in which they can improve police responses regarding crimes against women and children.

Organizations like the UNICEF, Action Aid and AALI (a legal collective) support these workshops which have been conducted for rural and urban police stations in several districts of the state, the traffic police, railway police, the Anti -human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) and the Juvenile Police Units (SJPUs).

Certificates are awarded to each participant and letters of appreciation to district police officers who take interest in taking the programme forward.

Results

An “impact analysis” by Action Aid reveals that the objectives of the program are very relevant and the goals are largely achieved so far as better knowledge of the legal requirements /provisions is concerned.

Key benefits

• Over 2500 Police Officials Trained Directly and 6000 indirectly

• Perceptible improvement in attitude and behaviour of police personnel at the police stations

• Contributed towards evolving a gender-sensitive and child-friendly face of UP Police

• Bringing together of multiple stakeholders has generated a synergy amongst them after a realization that these issues cannot be tackled while working in silos.