National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Mamta Sharma on Tuesday lauded the Mumbai police’s efforts and said that its initiatives for women safety in the city are an example for the police of other cities.
“What the Mumbai police has done for ensuring the safety of women is highly commendable. Police officers across the country should take a leaf out of their (Mumbai police) book,” said Ms Sharma.
She was speaking at a seminar on women safety, which was also attended by the city police commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh In the wake of the Delhi gangrape, the Mumbai police had stepped up its arrangement for the safety of women. A safety app and a series of gender sensitisation measures have already been launched, Dr Singh said.
However, Ms Sharma said that whenever there’s a case of crime against women, it’s not the higher police officials, but the junior level police officers, who create hurdles.
Admitting that there are lapses in the police machinery, Dr Singh said that women in the city should come forward and work with the police in tandem. Noticing a trend in the rape cases in the city, he said, “There were 231 cases of rape in 2012 and 220 rape cases in 2011. In 2012, we found that only in nine cases the victims were not known to the accused and in 2011 a mere 13 were unknown to the accused.”
Dr Singh said that women can feed phone numbers through a cellphone application and during an emergency situation, just click a single button, to send a message to all those numbers. The application will also let the police know the whereabouts of women.
Nandita Shah, co-director, NGO Akshara said that her NGO in collaboration with other organisations has been carrying out a “women safety audit” in five wards across Mumbai. “The administration has promised to improve the situation at these places,” she said.