With the aim to decrease crime against women and increase safety, Kerala state launched the “Pink Protection” project on 19th July which will aim to safeguard women in public, private, and digital spaces. For further support to strengthen the project and leave no stone unturned, 10 cars, over 40 two-wheelers including bullet bikes, and 20 bicycles were allocated to the police working under this project, and all the vehicles were flagged off to start yesterday by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.
How Does it Work?
This project’s primary aim is to constantly work and prevent cyberbullying, dowry-related issues, and humiliation of women. This project consists of 10 issues to work on and one of which is to strengthen the already existing “Pink Police Patrol” system.
Under this patrol system, as the name suggests, police will conduct regular patrolling and visit houses to collect information about domestic violence and other issues women are facing. They will collect information from neighborhoods, panchayats, other locals, and hand over the complete information to the police working in the project who will take over from there and see what the necessary action can be taken abiding by the law.
Special control rooms have been set up across the state in 14 districts, to coordinate all the activities and respond to the complaints as the earliest. To ensure the safety of women, especially in public places, specially trained women police officers will be deployed in front of schools, colleges, bus stops, and other public places. Even a special women patrol team called “Pink Romeo” was launched as part of this project.
On the occasion, a high-level police official added, “If a complaint is registered against domestic violence, we will conduct regular patrolling to ensure the safety of the women there”. Elaborating about this project, he further quoted, “there will be a lot of things happening in a household or to women in general which they are not ready to share. With lady officers under this project, we will reach out to those in need of help, win their trust, and solve the problem legally.”
This project was made after a rough year of the COVID-19 pandemic that has increased violence, especially domestic violence against women. Kerala has registered an increased number of cases that questioned the safety of women in the state.
Officials and the common public are under the hope that this project will bring a change and ensure the safety of women in Kerala.
