UP hopes to make its cops gender sensitive

Apparently, worried over the all round criticism of the Uttar Pradesh Police for their ‘insensitive attitude’ toward women, the state government has now decided to ‘gender-sensitise’ policemen to ensure a change in their behaviour toward the womenfolk.

For this purpose, the government has decided to organise a seminar on gender sensitisation in the state capital in which senior state police officers as well as the academicians would be taking part.

“Well known academicians from the Indian Institutes of Management, universities and colleges, psychologists and jurists will be invited to speak on issues pertaining to women’s security and other gender-related issues,” said a senior government official here on Saturday.

“The main objective of the seminar is to sensitise the policemen on gender-related issues and ensure a positive change in their behaviour by increasing their awareness of gender concerns,” the official said.

The decision to gender sensitise the personnel comes in the wake of blatantly ‘insensitive’ remarks made by UP Police in the last few days following incidents of crimes against the women in the state.

Only recently UP Police chief  A L Banerjee had sought to ‘blunt’ the attack on the state police for being insensitive toward crimes against women by downplaying the incidents of rapes and murders in the state saying they were ‘routine’ incidents.

The DGP’s remarks came barely a couple days after police chief of UP’s Jhansi district Sriparna Ganguly said it was wrong to state that police laxity was responsible for the rapes.

“Rape is a social problem. Social thinking is responsible for rapes. The society will have to ponder over it and find a solution. Rapes do not take place owing to police laxity,” Ganguly had said.