The Hindu : Cops play family counsellors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Cops play family counsellors

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD July 4. An initiative launched by the West Zone police to resolve conflicts through counselling has been yielding positive results, and within a short span of two months the Counselling and Conflict Resolution Centre (CCRC) has been able to solve as many as 32 cases successfully.

The CCRC, comprising the DCP West Zone, Anjana Sinha, three High Court advocates -- Mohsina Parveen, Indira and Rani Reddy -- has so far received more than 42 complaints wherein both sides were called for resolution and counselled.

The cases handled by the centre pertained domestic disputes, harassment or problems of incompatibility and, in a majority of cases, counselling worked wonders since both the parties were willing to abide by the decisions taken through mutual counselling. "The exercise has been very encouraging and this would certainly help solve the problems,'' Ms. Sinha told reporters here on Friday.

The counselling could be a better way in instances where the complainants did not want a case to be registered, but yet they wanted to solve the problem immediately. The centre, which began its efforts two months ago, had so far received 42 representations and 32 had been solved amicably. In a particular case, when a person refused to pay maintenance to his estranged wife, the centre intervened on a complaint. After counselling, he agreed to pay the maintenance. Normally, if a case was registered, it would have taken at least three to four years to settle the issue.

Ms. Sinha rejected the contention that the centre, which consisted of all women members, could be biased against men. "In fact, in some cases, we found that female complainants were not justified in their demands and we had to counsel them,'' she pointed out.

In one of such cases, Ms. Sinha narrated, a woman approached the centre complaining of harassment by her husband and wanted help to get a divorce so that she could marry another person. But the counsellors found that both the woman and man were afflicted with HIV and that the woman wanted divorce on petty grounds. "We can certainly understand if someone approaches the Centre with exaggerated complaints.''

Ms. Sinha appealed to people to approach the centre which functions from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday and from 11.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on every Saturday. The centre could be contacted on 23307676.

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