Eng lessons for cops before house calls on safety

Gurgaon: Men and women in khaki will soon be knocking on your doors to talk to you about cyber crime, sexual harassment and personal safety in a major outreach programme. Gurgaon police are currently training 50 of its personnel to conduct awareness sessions at residential societies, colleges, schools and business units in the city.
Officials said these 50 cops, chosen from different police stations across the city, are being trained to converse in English and become effective speakers. “They will also have special sessions with lawyers from Supreme Court on cyber law, POCSO and sexual harassment laws,” Gurgaon police spokesperson Subhash Boken told TOI.
Once trained, these cops will be divided into five teams which will then go to various residential societies and educational institutions across the city and hold interactive sessions about cyber crime, sexual harassment and personal safety, and tell people what to do in case they fall prey to any of these crimes.
“With the increase in the number of cyber crimes including vishing — the telephone equivalent of phishing — the cops will educate and aware people about the modus operandi of the criminals so that people do not become victims,” another official said.
Similarly sessions will be conducted on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (POSH) Act as well. “While the sessions on POCSO will be held mostly in schools, those on POSH will be more useful in small and medium sized industries which employ many not-so-educated educated women,” said Boken.
The police teams will also have members of Durga Shakti team who will encourage more women to install Durga Shakti app on their phones and use them when required. While the first leg of the training has been concluded, the other two sessions are expected to be complete in the coming weeks following which the teams will start going out and talking to people. The training is being carried out by a city-based NGO DVnity Serves. Seema Rajput, who runs the NGO, said the initiative has been inspired by police commissioner Mohammad Aqil. “The commissioner wanted us to devise an outreach program where the best-groomed police officials in town can go out and speak to people about the crimes and the provisions under the law,” said Rajput.
“The training on spoken English and public communication skills were necessary because many societies and organisations in Gurgaon have NRIs and expats who would not understand Hindi. The cops will also be trained to address people according to their age as well as gender,” she added.
ASI Mukesh, one of the women cops who is a part of the initiative, said, “I am glad to be a part of this programme as it helps us reach out to people and change the image of the police for better.”