Nagpur: Taking the security of girls living in Nagpur hostels on high priority, Nagpur police is set to extend its ‘Buddy cops’ service to around 7,841 inmates of 117 girls’ hostels, including 29 government and 59 private premises, after the scheme was formally rolled out on Tuesday at Chitnavis Centre.
City police top brass had invited State women commission chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar to inaugurate the Buddy cops social media (WhatsApp)-based scheme at police station level.
Buddy cops concept, which was conceptualized by Pune police for women employees of IT sector following a murder, was re-introduced in city by top cop K Venkatesh in an improvised format meant for the inmates of girls’ hostels. This was the second woman-oriented initiative of Venkatesh and his team of senior women cops comprising DCP, EOW, Shweta Khedkar, ACP Ashwini Patil, PI Shubhada Sankhe and others after Bharosa cell which was opened in January this year.
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Venkatesh, while addressing the gathering of women activists and members of various police-public committees, explained the objective of the scheme stating that it would cater mainly to that section of the young women who had migrated to city and have opted to find accommodation in hostels.
“The concept stemmed from the fact that proactive policing for prevention is better than to fire fight the problem after it takes place. This system would also instill confidence and a sense of security among the inmates and also their parents who are constantly worried about the well-being of their daughters in an alien place,” he said.
The CP also said functioning of the Buddy cops system would be placed under scanner, reviewed and reflected upon after some time to gauge it’s effectiveness or to ensure corrective action.
Venkatesh also praised Maharashtra police for already having a substantial percentage of the cops being women with a strength of more than 23,000 officers from them. “Women cops are nowadays catering to much more responsible tasks including facing the masses,” he said.
State women commission chairperson Rahatkar shared her own experience during the inauguration stating that she herself had to join the protest movement hitting the streets to secure justice for a murdered young woman even when she was a Mayor of Aurangabad.
“The initiative of Nagpur police should be replicated elsewhere in the state too which I shall recommend before the state Director general of police who also happens to be one of our committee member. It is a genuine fact that parents remain genuinely concerned for their daughters staying in other cities,” she said.
DCP Khedkar said that the basic style of implementing the scheme would be to gradually befriend the hostelites, take into confidence and then learn about their problems. “We have exhaustively surveyed and studied the hostels and their inmates before launching the programme,” he said. The DCP also shared her experience of probing the murder case of Monica Kirnapure in 2011 who was a hostel girl.
