For Women to file FIRs – ‘Police stations need policewomen’

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LAHORE – Saima, 24, says that she is not one of those people who would opt to go to a police station to report a crime. “Muggings are increasing in Lahore it seems, because I keep hearing of near relatives and friends who have been affected in various areas by this. But if for instance it ever happened to me, I would probably not report it myself. I would send my brother,” she says.
This is not just one woman’s sentiment. It is reflected in many women of all ages and the general attitude lies in the fear of entering a police station, to face an all male uniform force, drunk on their powers and who have the strength to do anything they wish to, whether it is physical harassment or mental torture. And it is not just police stations that scare women, it is also the response that they expect to come from the community in general.
“I can instantly picture how people will look at me up and down if I ever even stand in front of a police station, even if I am a victim,” says Shaheena, 37. She says she would be made to feel the shame as if she was doing something wrong. This attitude may be widespread and very deep rooted, but perhaps the only way to begin changing it may lie in revamping of the police force itself.
For this reason, a project called Gender Responsive Policing has been started by an organisation called German Agency for International Cooperation, headed by Dr Khola Iram. GRP aims at helping more women be inducted in police and more educated young women are the better their position will be. The very first aspect to understand is gender based violence. Sexual, physical, psychological, economic or socio-cultural forms of violence are very common in Pakistani society, regardless of it being an urban or rural area.
With family being the first place from where violence starts from, the woman is often under threat and especially where reporting the crime is concerned. In a two prong issue the first problem occurs at home when the woman is discouraged in many ways to stop reporting the crime but if in any case she does gather the courage and goes to report it, police, is often cause of dissuading the woman in reporting a crime, especially a gender-based crime.
Certain times in the all male atmosphere of a police station, a woman is often openly harassed without any qualms. Often words of a complaint or FIR are changed around in order to minimise the impact of the litigation process. This is more common in rural areas as compared to urban, but not one woman is seen in a regular police station even within the city. Within the framework of community policing, the government has often neglected status of women police officers and resolution of cases pertaining to crimes against women.
There is a serious countrywide shortage of female police stations. The first was set-up in 1994 during Benazir Bhutto’s second term as prime minister to support and protect victims of gender violence, giving them an alternative to registering such complaints in male-dominated stations. But the military government was indifferent to the concept. Very few such stations were set-up and the few that exist often lack even basic facilities such as telephones and adequate transport.
In some cases, these police stations have actually become examples of female disempowerment. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for instance, policewomen are not allowed to leave the station without the permission of senior male police officers. In fact according to Dr Khola, women police stations do not have the power to even lodge an FIR in their station. The case must be first referred to a male police station of the area, and then the case be registered. They also have no powers of investigation.
Instead of preventing violent crime against women, female police today merely assist their male counterparts in maintaining order as and when required, their only gender-based role is restricted to detaining women in their lock-ups. “We are neither given proper training nor allocated sufficient resources, which explains why most women who join police do so only if they can find no other profession”, says a female police officer in Lahore, seeking anonymity.
“If 50 percent of your population is female then how is it that they are not being represented by the police?” Dr Khola says. She says her objective from the project is to have at least two policewomen in every station, therefore resulting in much better reporting of crimes. “Their numbers be increased and given powers and gender sensitive training be given to both male and female officers so that there is much more sensitivity towards both the female victim and in investigation of cases” she says.
At present, the organisation is working directly with the National Police Bureau and focusing in Islamabad. The rest of Punjab is to follow after their objectives are reached here and then their services are to be extended to Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. “Surprisingly very little resistance was faced by us from within police. There have been officers who have resisted in the beginning coming up with excuses but that is now the past. Police are very supportive and we have all out support by IGs of all provinces,” Dr Khola says.
The very first objective is to have at least a women’s desk, where reporting a crime is made possible. This is to have women officers who take down details, but may even have gender sensitive male policemen. A practical approach has led the GSP project to rethink certain aspects of police job. “If culturally, women are not readily allowed to go out in the field, why not place them in investigation or desk jobs? This does not mean that there will be no women in the field but it simply means that the main idea is to induct more and more women into police.
The problem is people tend to view police as a force and not as public service providers,” she says. The need for more and fully functional female police stations and complaint cells is definitely acute. Various reports show that there is a large extent of custodial abuse of women and although male officers cannot detain women without presence of female staff, this is still commonplace especially in backward areas. Moreover, since most male police officers, particularly the less educated at the lower end of the hierarchy, demonstrate little gender sensitivity with regards to crimes against women, especially rape, female victims are understandably reluctant to approach them.
Even police curricula needs to be changed, and this has already been reviewed by the project team that says that they have already released standard operating procedures which have been approved and supported by police higher ups. “At this moment, we need more precise data where reporting of crimes against women is concerned. Once we have that, we will have better evidence to suggest as to why we actually need more women in the police,” Dr Khola says.
Today with more and more police officers, being led into the line of fire and with security issues rapidly increasing, women are needed for work such as investigation. Having a separate women’s police station may have been an idea which could have worked, but at the end of the day, it means separating the women force, not integrating them into the mainstream and this is what is actually needed.

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