Baby, a 26-year-old cook at the posh DLF Magnolias condominium complex here, has visited the Women Police Station in Gurugram Sector 51 several times over the past two weeks. She has been seeking police help to bring her husband back from Bihar.

She claims he was lured to Bihar by her in-laws, who were against their marriage, and is now being held hostage. “He called me saying his family wanted to forcibly marry him to someone else. My parents disowned me after we got married against their wishes four years ago. I am all alone in this big city. There is no one here to help me,” she said, as she broke down.

‘No empathy’

Baby went to the women’s police station hoping the staff would empathise with her but she was in for a rude shock. “I went to the police station for the first time on October 1. I asked a policewoman to help me write the complaint but she flatly refused. Since I am illiterate, I asked another complainant for help. The staff said they would contact me but I did not receive any call from them for days. I revisited the police station on October 10 and gave a fresh complaint. There has been no action on my complaint,” said Baby, adding that she did not find the staff at the police station forthcoming despite all of them being women.

‘Friendly environment’

The BJP government in Haryana set up women’s police stations in all districts of the State over the past three years to provide a “friendly environment” to female victims. However, constitution of these police stations in unprecedented hurry, without adequate staff, and absence of trained and sensitised women personnel has resulted in less than desired results.

Retired IPS Rajbir Deswal said demand for women personnel increased suddenly with introduction of women’s police stations across the State. Since there were insufficient trained women officers for the job, inexperienced personnel and those recruited under the sports quota were posted at these police stations. Women officers were earlier mostly involved in regulatory jobs and not serious investigation, he said.

“In fact, overall policing has been adversely impacted due to creation of these police stations since the number of cases registered there has increased but the staff is inadequate and untrained to carry out investigations,” said Mr. Deswal, who retired as Additional Director-General of Police, Human Rights and Litigation.

Inspector Raj Bala, the SHO at Sector 51 Women Police Station, said only three of the six sub-inspectors (SIs) posted at the station are working currently.

“While one SI is on maternity leave, two are unwell. This has led to a severe staff crunch since only an SI and officers of rank above SI can investigate cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences [POCSO] Act. Several territorial police stations also do not have women officers. In case they receive complaints regarding crimes against women, they ask us to send women officers,” said Ms. Bala.

Having handled three women’s police stations across Haryana over the past year, she conceded that cases of rape, unnatural sex and stalking were on the rise since dilution of the law on dowry.

“Complainants in dowry cases now insist on adding charges of sexual assault to ensure stricter and quicker action against the accused. It has increased our workload,” she said.

‘No training’

The officer said women personnel are not trained to investigate cases of heinous crimes, and are told to work in tandem with their male counterparts to learn investigation. “The Centre and the Haryana government conduct training for personnel on crimes against women from time to time. They are of great help,” she said.

Gurugram police said there are around 400 women personnel in the district, with nearly 50-odd personnel posted in each of the three women’s police stations. “The strength of women personnel is now around 10% of the total police strength in the district. Earlier, it was around 6%,” said Gurugram police spokesperson Subhash Boken.

‘Political move’

Human rights activist and former All-India Democratic Women’s Association general-secretary Jagmati Sangwan said creation of women’s police stations was a political move to make the impression that the government was serious about crimes against women. She said it was actually aimed at “adjusting” women officers who had not been promoted for long.

“Women officers in Haryana were not promoted for long since male officers did not want to work under them due to their patriarchal mindset. We too made several representations to the National Commission for Women on prolonged delays in promotion of women officers in Haryana. So the women’s police stations were actually created as parking house for these officers,” said Ms. Sangwan.

She said the staff at these police stations, despite all of them being women, is by no means sensitive and empathetic towards the victims and their issues. “No efforts have been made to orient and sensitise the staff towards women-related issues at these police stations. It is unfortunate but true that the staff at these police stations is more narrow-minded than their male counterparts,” she said.

Stating that there was a need to mainstream the issue of crimes against women and not to create separate police stations for them, she added: “Creation of women’s police stations in each district has actually done more harm than good. Women victims and their families are now made to travel long distances to these police stations instead of going to the nearest one to lodge their complaint. Women victims should be attended to with sensitivity in every police station.”

She said women’s police stations were a “failed concept”.