The idea behind the concept of Mahila Mitra is to weave a network of women support groups that reach the grass-root level triggering a social change, said City Police Commissioner D. Goutam Sawang, on Thursday.
He was addressing the inaugural meeting of a four-day workshop on self-defence, life skills and value education to 400 Mahila Mitra members, coordinators, teenage girls and women NSS medicos and para medics.
The training programme is jointly conducted by the Vijayawada city police, Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), Inner Wheel Club of Vijayawada and the NSS cell of the Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, with the support of Axis Bank.
Woman-friendly spaces
Mr. Sawang said the number of cases related to women issues reported in police stations was just the tip of the iceberg as many cases went unreported. It was the endeavour of the Mahila Mitra network to provide succour to the silent sufferers who stayed away from police stations. “The concept is clear in our minds. We now need to take it forward and put it in practice. Our effort is to transform it into a social movement,” he said.
The Police Commissioner said the primary idea was to create woman-friendly spaces through this network in an organised and most unobtrusive manner. “It is a very constructive, supportive and informal mechanism wherein the police take a proactive stand playing the role of a catalyst,” he said.
Joint Commissioner of Police V. Ramana Kumar said 50% of cases reported in the police stations were related to crimes against women. He said the department was focussed on follow-up and documentation of these cases.
Target groups
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Kanti Rana Tata said Mahila Mitra would go a long way in removing misconceptions in people’s minds on the role of police department.
“We have been seeing young girls landing in dicey situations in the absence of life skills. Then there are girls coming from broken families who fall easy prey to undisciplined lifestyle. Such girls are our target groups who would benefit most by this workshop,” said B. Keerthy, technical support manager, VMM.
Karate coach N. Lakshmi demonstrated simple techniques of self-defence that will be taught to the local police personnel who in turn will train schoolchildren.
Mahila Mitra patron Chennupati Vidya presided over the meeting while district chairperson of Inner Wheel District 302 V. Sridevi, G. Rashmi of VMM and others were present.
