The Narendra Modi government’s plan to set up a central helpline number across India that women in distress can call certainly shows its concern for women’s safety. One can be sure Mr Modi’s home ministry will meet its deadline of introducing such a helpline in six months, in contrast to its predecessor, which had envisaged such a national helpline after the gruesome December 16, 2012 New Delhi gangrape but succumbed to its trademark paralysis while implementing it.
Under the MHA plan, a call to this helpline will be received at special police-run call centres that will track the caller’s location and connect women in distress to the nearest police control room for speedy assistance. The Centre will need the help of telecom service providers, state home departments and all police forces. It will initially cover 114 cities that have been categorised as unsafe for women by the National Crime Records Bureau.
But in the long run, or at least in the next months, this can succeed only if the police in these 114 cities are sensitised to handle such cases. Till today, despite the huge outcry against crimes against women, the police in several cases don’t even want to register the offence, and an already-traumatised woman is often sent from one police station to another. Maybe the home ministry should first make the heads of all police stations in these 114 accountable for the failures of their juniors, as it is obvious that the training of uniformed personnel is far from adequate.
