*On Online Counselling to the Respondents in SHE Team related complaints in
Telangana State, WSW, TS
Women Safety Wing Head Office Hyderabad, Telangana,Organizing of one day Online Counselling session to the respondents in SHE Team
related offences of Telangana State, SHE Teams which came into existence on 24th October 2014 in Hyderabad City, now functioning in all the districts and
commissionerates of Telangana State, There are 331 SHE Teams having technical and field staff trained to received complaints & act upon it in a professional manner. ‘SHE data’ is fed on a live application & is monitored for quantity, quality of work as well as process set is monitored by the SHE module of Women Safety Wing. Covid-19 times has seen unforeseen circumstances where social distancing has become a new normal, it is observed number of complaints through phone / social media have increased compared to direct walk-ins during this period. In order to get accustomed to changed circumstances and to act as an effective deterrent for Stalking / Teasing related crime, counselling to respondents in crime is felt necessary. Though
approach of counselling is old& routine, being done on a virtual platform in an interactive mode is new. Today i.e. on 05.11.2020 the Woman Safety Wing, Telangana State, has organized a one day online Counselling to respondents on Gender Sensitization, reasons to analyse for erratic behaviour of respondents in various SHE Team related offences in Telangana State. Counselling session is attended by 26 Police Units under the supervision of the
respective SHE Teams of the police units from there Addl.S.P-04, DSPs-06, Inspectors-08, Sub-Inspectors-13, ASIs-11, Police Constables and Home guard officers Total-100 and 143 Majors and 07 Minor aged respondents total 150 respondents have been counselled today and they formed into small groups handled professionally.
On 05.11.2020 at 13:30 hours Smt.Swathi Lakra, IPS, Addl. Director General of
Police, WSW, TS Inaugurated the “One day Online Counselling Session” for 26 Police
Units of Telangana State, Introducing the concept of online counselling and purpose &
results of counselling, she remembered Sri.Swamy Vivekananda’s quote that “The best
thermometer to the progress of a nation is it’s treatment of its women ensuring that there
is change in behaviour of respondents and counselling is one such methodology, She
reiterated it’s a way for the suspect to reform himself, reminded that law will take its
own course if deviation repeats. Further stated that database is available with Police to
enhance the approach towards aiming at desired results. A brochure is released for SHE
Team officers on “Effective Counselling Techniques”.
Smt. Sumathi, IPS, Deputy Inspector General of Police, introducing the session said
that the counselling module is designed in such a way that it is a “process based
approach, which is being standardised. Research has gone into developing this module
based on the respondent’s behaviour towards committing such acts.
Thereafter Smt.Dr.Geetha Challa(Psychologist) and her associate members of
Sudheeksha Counselling Centre, Manojagruthi NGO Organization, TS have counselled
the respondents in a way to build Rapport through interaction & activities to understand
& work towards made respondents, at the end they allowed to fill in the Worksheet,
other topics addressed were the ways to Behaviour transformation through flash cards,
Understand Women / Girl’s psychology.
The counselling session is conducted at Women Safety Wing, TS, Hyderabad with
an objective of 1). Making counselling as an opportunity; not a punishment, 2). For
behavioural transformation, 3). For understanding a Women / Girl psychology, how eveteasing affects at different levels etc.,
On observing the statistics of SHE Team related complaints, it reveals that during
the year -2020 (till 31.10.2020) Total of 4,188 petitions were received through various
modes of complaints i.e. through Dial 100, Facebook, WhatsApp, Hawk-Eye, Email,
Twitter, Direct walk-in out of which 61% constitutes indirect complaint and 39 %
constitutes direct complaints.
On segregation of complaints under various categories, like Harassment over
Phone, Stalking, Teasing & Mis-behaving, Harassment through social media / Phone,
constitutes maximum number of complaints (69%), followed by Stalking & Eve-Teasing
(24%).
This is an unique program implemented by the Women Safety Wing, Telangana
Police as a “model online counselling session” to the large number of respondents
simultaneously with experts through activity based method in the entire state psychology
experts to conducted session change the behavior of the respondents and to bring
confidence in the victims so that they are safe and secure by proactive approach of
Police