Inspired by the success of SHE Team initiative that was started in Hyderabad city in 2014 in curbing eve teasing and atrocities against women, the District Police have launched first SHE Team in the district at Narsipatnam on Thursday.
About 90 women police constable have been allocated to the district police and they have been distributed to 25 odd police stations, according to Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma. In the district there are about 43 police stations with around 25 in plain areas.
Giving details of the SHE Team, Mr. Rahul Dev Sharma said, “There are two main components in the SHE Team – one is a deterrence factor and the other is operation in mufti.”
Patrolling around colleges and schools will be the deterrence factor and it will be done by the team in uniform.
“This is basically to show the presence of police so that eve teasing can be curbed. In the case of operation under mufti, the team will move in disguise near colleges and schools and other public places to nab eve teasers,” he said.
The SHE Team at Narsipatnam will be headed by Circle Inspector Revathamma and she will have four women constables and one male constable in the deterrence team and four women constables and one male constable in the mufti team and will function from morning to evening.
The team will directly be under the supervision of Narsipatnam Additonal Superintendent of Police K. Arif Hafeez.
“With the success of the team in Narsipatnam, we will replicate it in other 25 police stations in the plain areas and very soon Anakapalle area will have one team,” said Mr. Rahul Dev Sharma.
Awareness
Apart from policing, the SHE Team will also take up awareness programmes.
The basic idea is to create awareness among women about safety aspects and the rights that they enjoy.
“In schools and colleges we will focus on aspects such as ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’. We are designing pamphlets and audio-visual presentation to highlight these aspects and the team members will be trained and groomed accordingly,” said the SP.
In 2017, 12 cases of women murder, six cases of abetment to suicide, 115 cases of harassment, 38 cases of rape, 16 cases of kidnapping and 148 cases of outraging of modesty were reported in the district.
