Background
Women Power Line (WPL) is Uttar Pradesh Police's answer to a very inimical problem plaguing the Indian society: sexual harassment, and at its roots - misogyny shrouded in the patriarchal mindset of our society.
The roots of widespread crime against women lie deep within. In Indian society most girls grow up listening to these two common words - "IGNORE" & "TOLERATE" . The young girls are repeatedly taught, trained and conditioned not to raise their voice against wrongs, whatsoever they are. In a way these girls are regimented for many long years to first ignore and then tolerate. In fact our society systematically kills a girl's resistance to wrong doings and until she starts tolerating. She tolerates all kinds of harassment, from simple teasing, to groping, stalking, vulgar comments and even outright physical assault. When she joins the work place or when she gets married, she is again subjected to humiliating violence — in her personal and professional life, which again she is asked to endure in silence for a number of reasons.
This helplessness stems from women's lack of readiness to raise their voices — largely on account of an apathetic attitude of authorities towards such crimes. This further encourages heinous crimes such as acid attacks, dowry deaths, suicides, rapes, etc. The data from NCRB corroborates the findings that 92% of the heinous offences against women are committed by someone known.
So if we have to make a society where women are safe, have self respect and dignity, then we will have to devise a methodology where we teach and train our young girls to speak up, and not to tolerate slightest of non-sense, and bring about "Zero Tolerance" for Crime against Women. For this - these young girls will have to speak out loud and raise concerns. However, the big question remains - Who would listen?
WPL-1090 is an answer to that very problem. Legal reforms must find an echo in social reforms and it was observed that one way to achieve this, is by encouraging women to talk by giving them a dedicated platform that is secure, supportive, discreet, and most importantly, empowered to act. WPL-1090 became that very platform.
Summary
To curb these, UP Police launched Women Power Line in 2012 — a program aimed at completely transforming the security of women in the state. The program is based on three key pillars :
- Listen: The Police setup a 24 hour contact center staffed by trained police-women that maintains complete confidentiality of the case and the victim.
- Solve: The Police resolves most of the cases through counseling of the accused, and at times with his family members rather than enforcing their formal authority alone.
- Sustain: The Police actively keeps in touch with the victim for 3 months, followed by 24 months of observation to ensure her problem is sustainably resolved before closing the incident.
