The police have started finding whether domestic violence against women had risen during the lockdown.
Police officers from 15 All Women Police Stations (AWPS) in the Tiruchi Range have been entrusted with the task to call up victims of domestic violence cases reported earlier to find out whether the abuse against them continued or aggravated during the lockdown period. They have put in place a pro-active ‘phone up’ initiative to determine if the domestic violence against women was continuing.
Under the initiative launched a few days ago, officers of the AWPS and their team would call up each and every victim of domestic violence from the data of complaints and cases registered from 2017 up to March 2020. Statistics reveals that there were as many as 14,930 incidents of harassment / violence against women (physical or psychological in nature) in their homes.
The number of First Information Reports registered during this period was 619 and the number of Community Service Registers issued was 14,311 across the Tiruchi Range comprising Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Karur, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts.
The ‘phone up’ initiative was launched as it was not possible to verify in person in view of the pandemic. The AWPS teams have commenced the task, said the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range V. Balakrishnan. A standard format has been designed with 10 questions to be asked. If the telephone call was attended by a male member, another call would be made at a different time. Unattended calls would be attempted again. If the call continued to be picked up not by the victim or it remained unattended, physical verification would be done thereafter. Physical verification would be done to find out the condition of the women and initiate appropriate action if the violence was found to be continuing. The objective was to instil confidence among victims of domestic violence and find out if there was a sudden spurt, he said.
It was also aimed at rescuing victims caught in a continuing abusive relationship with the abuser. To improve the effectiveness of the initiative, a second line of checking would be done by district-level nodal officers and a super check of one per cent of cases would be done at the range level by the DIG.