Following the directive of the State Police Chief, all the city and rural police stations in Kozhikode district on Saturday hosted an oath taking ceremony under the ‘Say No to Dowry’ campaign. Personnel from over 30 police stations lined up under the Station House Officers to take the oath expressing their commitment to take stringent legal action against the practice of dowry.
The district-level oath taking ceremony under the Kozhikode City police took place on the Kozhikode beach at 9.30 a.m. District Police Chief A.V. George administered the oath. Senior officers from various police sub divisions took part in the district-level event.
In support of the campaign, awareness vehicle rallies and competitions will be organised within the limits of various police stations in the days to come. The Student Police Cadets and various other volunteer wings of the police will join the drive by spreading the message at the grassroots-level. To comply with the State-level directive, the Station House Officers will directly handle petitions related to dowry and domestic violence.
For speedy action, a district-level cell to look into all complaints related to dowry and other related atrocities against women will be formed. The activities of the domestic conflict resolution centres in the city and rural police districts will be expanded. A senior woman police officer will be designated to carry out the operations of the cell.
Police officers said the main aim of the cell would be to ensure time-bound solution to all grievances related to dowry. Each police station would open a separate wing to quickly look into such complaints and report the follow-up action taken to their higher authorities, they said.
A State-level monitoring facility has also come into effect for the effective supervision of the complaint redressing mechanism. Monthly review meetings will be held to discuss the actions taken on various complaints and the progress of various rural and city awareness programmes conducted by the Station House Officers.
Officials in charge of community policing schemes said the beat officers would be asked to keep an eye on local incidents related to dowry system in their assigned areas. Women police officers would also keep in touch with various women’s welfare organisations to keep track of unreported incidents and ensure justice to victims, they said.
