JOIN USWomen helplines are in need of help
If you think that Delhi Police, being the guardian of the Capital City, should be the most professional and advanced police force in the country, this will come to you as a
surprise.
At the Control Room, Delhi Police Headquarters, where all the calls to helplines 100 and 1091 (for women) are handled, no manual or guide detailing a standard procedure is followed. The call takers treat their job as limited to only receiving and transferring information to the local police or PCR van. These officials are not provided regular training and transferred from one branch to the other often.
The call operators understand only Hindi and very limited English. They have no technology whereby a speech and hearing impaired woman can communicate her problems. Lastly, most of these officials carry pre-conceived notions of where a woman should be at what time, which prejudices their assistance to the callers as well.
These are the findings of Jagori – an NGO working for women – which recently did a study on Delhi Police helplines and how they can be strengthened.
Kalpana Viswanath, member, Jagori, informs Metrolife, “During our previous studies on public places and safety of women, we realised that an effective police helpline is of utmost importance. The police cannot be at all places at all times but a helpline can get a woman in touch with the cops wherever she gets into trouble. Therefore, we observed the process of call taking at Control Room, Delhi Police HQ and noted the shortcomings.”
Most surprisingly, she says, “There is no manual for the operators. This means that they either give vague replies to the callers or depend entirely on their seniors for instructions.”
Secondly, they are not given any training to provide emotional encouragement or survival tips to their callers. “The way a helpline operator – the first point of contact for a victim – deals with her, can either save her life or further worsen the situation,” Kalpana explains.
Most importantly, the call-takers are conversant only in Hindi which makes it difficult for distressed tourists, expats and women from other states to explain themselves. These are also the women most often targeted by miscreants.
Add to that absence of technology to detect a victim’s location as well as women with hearing disabilities.
Kalpana says, “Even those calls which are attended are never gone back to for evaluation and no feedback is taken from the callers.”
The study did not stop at this. Partner NGO MARG spoke to a cross section of women including hostellers, Northeastern women, professionals, domestic workers and even sex workers. Fifty per cent of them admitted to have never heard of these helplines.
Those who did use them, reported very lax or no police response at all, and most said that they would rather turn to family and friends when in need of help, than the police.
Anju Talukdar, director, MARG, said, “We realised that the police has installed helplines, computers and personnel but sensitivity, responsibility and accountability are grossly missing. The police just transfer information to the local police, the PCR vans reach at any time and the caller hardly ever receives any real help.
Understandably, it reflects in the public perception of helplines as well.”
“The authorities must plug the loopholes in handling of the helplines soon. Or else, it will be little more than a lip service to women’s safety.”