With the world celebrating Sunday as International Women's Day, the Delhi Police promoted 45 policewomen to the rank of Inspector.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said that the reasons were administrative and the date was coincidental, but said that the female inspectors would ensure that the national capital is rid of crime against women.
"Promotion is a merely administrative aspect. It is indeed a happy coincidence that around 45 women sub-inspectors have been promoted [on International Women's Day]. We will post them to police stations or those units where there is a great need for female police personnel, so that they can help eradicate crime against women in the city," Bassi told the media.
"They will ensure that our efforts in ridding the city of crime against women are implemented on the ground. Secondly, they will also be crucial for helping those women who have come to make complaints at police stations. They will also handle the heinous crimes committed against women," he added.
Bassi further said that the number of rape cases rising was not indicative of a deteriorating scenario, maintaining that the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case has emboldened women to come forward.
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"After the 2012 Nirbhaya incident, society was forced to look at rape. A new thinking came into society, women found new self-confidence, police found new patience and changes were brought into the law. Due to this, in 2013, there was a 300-400 percent increase in the number of crimes against women reported. In today's date, no crime against women goes unreported, and since every personnel of the police has been sensitised to the same, an FIR is filed immediately," he said.
The Delhi Police Commissioner further said that his force will provide self defence training to all girls in the city to ensure no untoward incident takes place.
"We are looking at providing a 15-day self-defence orientation programme to girls. Our aim for 2015 is providing this training to one lakh girls, and as on March 8, 26,000 girls have participated in the programme. We want to make this a movement. We want girls to be strong enough to overwhelm any attacker by the time she is 15 years old," he said.
"Every police station does have 10-15 female personnel, as well as a women's help desk, that is open 24x7, 365 days a year," he added.
