In the wake of increasing sexual assaults against women and the attempts to cover up such incidents, the city police have come up with a gender sensitisation programme for women.
The programme, aimed at girls and women who are members of various residents’ associations and Kudumbasree units in the city, will be coordinated by senior police officers and resource persons.
The first awareness session in the series was held at Government Girls’ Vocational Higher Secondary School at Nadakkavu on Saturday.
As many as 200 women representing various residents’ associations took part in the session that focused on recent cases that came under the consideration of the police department and the ways in which they were dealt with to ensure justice to the victims.
Circle Inspector Shanty Cyriac, who coordinates the programme in the city, said it was part of the State government’s flagship project to carry out societal interventions to prevent atrocities against women.
“We have conducted training for 100 police officers in the area to take the lead and organise awareness sessions in their station limits,” she said.
As part of the project, selected women are given free training in basic self-defence techniques.
Within Kozhikode city limits, 5,000 women will be trained in martial arts under the guidance of expert trainers from the police department and other approved institutes. The training is under way in selected educational institutions in the city.
