Noting that raising the number of female police personnel will not help the cause of women empowerment unless they become economically independent, Telangana Director General of Police Anurag Sharma said today.
The DGP was speaking during an event organised by Telangana CID and Hyderabad Police's 'SHE Teams' to raise awareness on legal rights and self-defence techniques for women at Necklace Road here.
"There can be no real empowerment of women only by providing more number of women police stations and by posting more number of women in police stations and at help desks manned by women, unless they become economically independent. Only when they achieve economic independence they will become empowered," Sharma said.
The Telangana police chief said the state government has provided 33 per cent reservation for women in the police department, adding, "Therefore, we are going to see women SIs and constables in all the police stations."
Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy said as many as 100 'SHE Teams', which keep an eye on eve-teasers, are working in Hyderabad city.
The offenders, apart from being booked are also counselled and their parents and other family members informed about them, he said.
The officers of SHE Team, who are in civil dress, are deployed near colleges and other public places.
Hyderabad police set up SHE Teams to crack down on eve-teasers and stalkers in October 2014 and it started operating from all over Telangana from April 2015.
A single SHE Team comprises a male or female sub-inspector, a woman police constable and three police constables who carry hidden cameras for video-recording.
"We are providing one lakh CCTV cameras in each lane and street of every colony, and all the cameras will be linked to the command and control centre in the police commissionerate, and any incident at any place will be immediately known within seconds to the police," Reddy said.
Tollywood actor Ram Charan Tej, who participated in the event, said there should be a change in the attitude of men towards women.
SHE Teams' songs CD and their website were also inaugurated by the DGP. Over 3,000 girls from different colleges, NGOs and others participated in the event.
