Title - GRP wants more staff to deal with women’s safety

Mumbai: No less than 902 offences were recorded by the Government Railway Police (GRP) during the recently concluded Railway Safety Week in the city. The focus of the campaign was safety of women, and it saw GRP officers interacting with female commuters to explain measures to prevent crimes against them.
    The GRP is now putting together a proposal for recruiting more personnel so that a police escort can be posted in every ladies compartment at night and on platforms near the ladies compartments during the daytime. The existing strength of the GRP is 3,700, of which 3,500 are constables and the rest are officers.
    “If the plan for women’s safety is to be put into practice, we will require at least 1,500 additional personnel on Central Railway (CR) alone,” a senior GRP official said. “We are still computing the exact number of personnel required, both on CR and Western Railway.”
    During the Railway Safety Week held between January 2 and 8, the GRP caught 45 men travelling in women’s compartments. Of these, 80% were on the CR. Another 148 persons were arrested for
travelling in coaches reserved for the disabled. Of these, 82% were on CR.
    “We also came across several minors who either had run away from home or had been abandoned by their parents,” an official said. “Thirty-seven such cases were recorded under the Juvenile Justice Act on the CR and WR, and the kids were sent to shelter homes.”
    One of the rescued children was the son of a police officer from Orissa who had boarded a long-distance train to CST after his father scolded him. The Class X student had taken a taxi to the Byculla zoo but started crying on his way back when a taxi driver asked him where he lived. The taxi driver brought the boy to the GRP. His family was then summoned to the city.
    “Creating awareness among youngsters was given importance (during the safety week) and we organized tours of railway police chowkies besides explaining the dangers of track-crossing,” DCP Ghanshyam Bhandare, CR, GRP, said. “Lectures on safety were also delivered in educational institutions.”
    As many as 126 cases of indecent behaviour were recorded on CR and WR, and 56 of unauthorized hawking. Strong law for sexual crimes discussed B arely a week after the HC asked the state government to enact strong laws against eve-teasing and other sexual crimes against women, the state government has set the ball rolling. On Thursday, women and child development minister Varsha Gaikwad met women’s groups and experts to discuss the draft of such a legislation. Copies of a draft private bill were also circulated and participants asked to submit their views in a meeting on January 16