The Chittoor police are upbeat over the “success” of ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Mahila Police’ (GGMP) programme, which has lead to a sharp decline in instances of violence against women.
The programme was launched in Chittoor by DIG (Anantapur Range) A.N. Ammireddy on June 9.
Speaking to The Hindu, Superintendent of Police Y. Rishant Reddy said that the unique programme was initially launched in 35 wards under 35 police station limits, involving a workforce of 512 Mahila Police in coordination with the village and ward volunteers.
The programme focused on the importance of Disha App, and getting it downloaded on the mobile phones of women during the door-to-door campaign. During interaction with women, information about domestic violence, if any, in the households was also sought, Mr. Rishant Reddy said.
The special drive also helped the police get information about the areas prone to occurrence of crime, information on social events, and information about pending cases / issues with the police, if any.
Mr. Rishant Reddy said the survey was intended to take the police services to every household in the district and collect the field-level information about the possible crimes against women and children, and to provide phone numbers to be contacted in times of emergency.
The information collected from the households would be reflected on the dashboards for taking action by the police officials concerned on the pending issues noted during the survey and to be monitored by the senior officers at the circle / sub-division and district levels.
Further, a brochure was prepared with comprehensive information about crimes against women and children, domestic violence, cybercrime, and drug abuse. In the brochure, the common method of cheating and preventive measures, and the punishment for involving in the offenses were mentioned.
Mr. Rishant Reddy said the district administration assisted in the preparation of 35,000 brochures and issued a circular to all the Mahila Police and volunteers to participate in the survey.
A workshop was conducted for all the Mahila Police in June to create awareness among them about the modalities to be followed during the survey.
Grievance redress
During the last 40 days, the Mahila Police covered over 50,000 households in the identified wards. Over 500 complaints were raised during the survey. A majority of the complaints were solved through counselling and cases were booked in small numbers depending on their seriousness.
“The door-to-door survey will be an ongoing process, and more wards and households will be covered in a phased manner,” the SP said.
