Residents’ associations to help prevent gender crimes

KOCHI: In the wake of rising incidents of crimes against women, the city police have enlisted the support of residents’ associations for drawing up an action plan to prevent such incidents and alert the police about them.A special scheme has been launched under the supervision of City Police Commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam and associations have been directed to report any instance of women and children being subjected to cruelty or harassment in their residential areas. Though no dowry-related deaths were reported in the city last year, 48 instances of rapes and 50 of cruelty by husbands or relatives were reported.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Aishwarya Dongre has been designated to interact with representatives of residents and apartments associations on a regular basis over the procedures required to identify and report such incidents.A team led by Dongre conducted 68 online meetings between June 14 and June 20 with the associations in the city as part of the scheme.

City Narcotics Cell Assistant Commissioner Thomas K A said the police have received 107 complaints of cruelty against women and children and action was taken on 83 complaints. The city police have also decided to conduct complaint-redressal meetings online every Sunday between 10am and noon from June 27. Women can raise complaints through the link https://meet.google.com/zbe-xqdt-oux.

The police will also launch a social media campaign with video presentations on 10 self-defence techniques that women can use against an attacker. Officers said the videos, structured as a training module, will be circulated through the official social media pages of the city police.