Five years after shocking gang rape, rapid
response unit aims to combat assault and harassment in India’s crowded capital
By Amrit Dhillon
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All-female
police units are shaking up the male-dominated force in conservative India
Photograph:
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
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Delhi’s police force has created an
all-female motorcycle squad in an attempt to tackle rising crime against women,
particularly in the city’s narrow alleyways.
The patrol, called Raftaar (Speed), will
deploy specially trained female officers on 600 motorbikes from December. They
will carry regular firearms, body cameras, pepper spray and stun guns and work
in pairs patrolling crowded, cramped areas of the city.
It is hoped that their presence will deter
offenders and reassure women, who led protests against sexual assault five
years ago after a brutal gang rape in Delhi. Research released earlier this
month found that women who report such crimes are still routinely harassed by
police or bullied into silence.
In 2016, more than 2,150 rapes were recorded
in Delhi – a rise of 67% from 2012, according to police data. A poll by the
Thomson Reuters Foundation in October found that Delhi, along with São Paulo in
Brazil, was the world’s worst city for sexual violence against women, a fact
that has earned the metropolis the tag of India’s “rape capital”.
Critics have often said that there are too
few police officers to deal with the city’s 26 million-strong population, and
that even if crimes are reported, they are not handled properly.
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Saroj
Chodhuary, an Indian police constable in Jaipur, where a similar unit has been
established
Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
A spokesperson for Delhi police said that if
a woman calls the force, the patrol van is unlikely to be able to get through
the narrow space, with motorbikes being the only vehicle able to negotiate the
lanes and traffic jams.
“The motorbike force, with its hi-tech
equipment, will increase visibility on the streets and reassure women,” said
Dependra Pathak, chief spokesman for the Delhi police. “Because they will zip
through narrow lanes and have GPS, they will have a faster response time than
patrol vans. The plan is for them to be used mostly in areas such as university
areas where there are a lot of female students.”
Ravi Kant, the president of the Shakti Vahini
women’s rights group, said the measure was a kneejerk reaction.
“Crimes are rising because of poor law
enforcement. Criminals know they can get away with it because police investigations
are so shoddy that hardly anyone is convicted in the courts. We need a holistic
action plan, not this kind of reaction,” he said.
Delhi’s high court has ordered the city’s
police force to develop a strategy to tackle crime against women, after
repeated failures to curb cases year-on-year. Judges have directed the police
commissioner to be in court on 11 December to present his full plan.
