The Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, Chandigarh celebrated International Women’s Day by organizing Special Lectures by Mr. S.K. Sharma, Former DGP, Punjab Police on the topics “Women and Police” and “Community Policing in Punjab: Initiative by Punjab Police” on 08.03.2017. Prof. B.S. Ghuman while welcoming and introducing the theme, said that the theoretical and applied facets of law and order are changing very fast. Thus the need of the hour is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by organizing lectures like the present one by a professional of the stature of Mr. S.K. Sharma. In his lecture on “Women and Police”, Mr. Sharma delved in to various kinds of abuses against women prevailing in society and how there is female de-selection at all levels. He apprised the students about various legal provisions and governance measures initiated by the Government to ensure that dignity of women is not jeopardized and how police is involved in dealing with these issues. He said that though half of the world’s population comprises of women, they do not occupy 50% space in life, social settings, economy and politics. Women empowerment would ensure reduction in poverty, enhancement of their status, increased role in decision making and reduction in inequalities. He motivated women to come forward for registration of complaints and seek police services as in the traditional set-up, women have lot of apprehensions in visiting a police station for such services. He informed the audience that special task forces have been set up to curb cases of sexual harassment, eve teasing etc. in field units with a view to make police force gender friendly. Police being the first respondent is being trained to deal with issues, complaints and complainants with sensitivity. While speaking on “Community Policing in Punjab: Initiative by Punjab Police” Mr. Sharma stressed on the role played by Saanjh Kendras. In addition to service delivery, Saanjh Kendras are effective in dispute redressal and spreading awareness against drug abuse, traffic campaigns, crime against women and rights of citizens under various legislations. According to him, in the recent times the police infrastructure has been modernized at the police station level. This has resulted in improvement in the overall working environment, improved morale of police force and a better police image. He shared with the audience a number of people friendly apps for better delivery of service like untraced persons report, missing article report, downloading of civil/character verification. This was followed by a number of questions covering sexual harassment of women at work place, working hours of women, biased role of media. Large number of participants comprising faculty, research scholars and students participated in the discussion. Dr. Navreet proposed a vote of thanks. |
