All the police stations in Coimbatore city and rural will now have a child welfare police officers who are trained to handle cases involving crime against women and children. The child welfare officers will be present on duty in mufti and they will wear a special badge.
“Child welfare officers have a range of duties, including addressing crime against women and children, guiding a victim of crime, counselling them and creating awareness on such crimes among people in their jurisdiction. A trained women police officer will be chosen for the duty,” said V. Jeyashri, Superintendent of Police, Crime against Women and Children (CWC) wing for North and West zones.
The officers will work closely with the Child Welfare Committee, Social Justice Department, Juvenile Justice Board and the Child Line.
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Additional Director General of Police Seema Agarwal is heading the CWC wing which was formed last year. Under Ms. Agarwal, one SP is taking care of Chennai, and two others are covering Central, South, North and West zones.
A day long training was given to 56 child welfare police officers from city and rural police stations at the Police Community Hall on Tuesday.
Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan, POCSO Court judge J. Radhika, Coimbatore Rural Superintendent of Police Ara. Arularasu, Ms. Jeyashri, Coimbatore City Deputy Commissioners of Police G. Stalin (Law and Order), E.S. Uma (Crime), K. Gunasekaran (Headquarters), Additional Superintendent of Police (CWC) G.S. Anitha, District Child Protection Officer R. Sundar and Fr. C. Albert Yesudass from Don Bosco Anbu Illam, the Child Line agency in Coimbatore, attended the programme.
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An awareness poster on crime against women was released at the event. The special badge was given to all the child welfare officers.