Gujarat Police launches 28-day ‘Surakshit Shakti’ drive with focus on women’s safety, digital threats

Gandhinagar, Aug 17 (IANS) Gujarat Police has launched a 28-day statewide ‘Surakshit Shakti’ drive to strengthen the safety of women and girls, with the initiative combining preventive policing, digital safety awareness, victim support, community participation and performance-based monitoring.

The drive follows a direction from Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi that “there should be no compromise on the safety of women and children and that all necessary measures should be taken to prevent crimes against them”.

Under the supervision of Director General of Police (DGP) G.S. Malik, the state police will also focus on threats faced by women and girls on digital platforms.

Led by Director General of Police (CID Crime and Railways) K.L.N. Rao, the initiative has been designed around prevention and protection, awareness and empowerment, support and enforcement, and sustainability.

It also includes a system to monitor the performance of police units and assess outcomes through measurable indicators.

“We have proposed evidence-based policing and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness of the initiative,” said Ajay Choudhary, Additional Director General of Police (CID Crime, Women Cell).

As part of the prevention and protection measures, police units have been directed to identify vulnerable areas, strengthen patrolling and undertake preventive interventions against crimes and harassment affecting women.

The drive will also encourage greater use of visible policing, body-worn cameras and other technological tools to improve accountability and evidence collection.

Digital safety is another key component of the campaign. Police will educate women and girls about online threats including cyberbullying, online grooming, sextortion, deepfakes, OTP fraud and QR-code scams.

“A major focus of the campaign is awareness and digital safety. The police will educate women and girls about emerging online threats such as cyberbullying, online grooming, sextortion, deepfakes, OTP fraud and QR-code scams,” Choudhary said.

The campaign will also familiarise women with emergency and support mechanisms, including helplines 181, 112 and 1930 and One Stop Centres.

It will encourage women to acquire self-defence skills and understand their legal rights.

Schools, colleges, communities, non-governmental organisations, NCC, NSS and other stakeholders are being brought into the campaign to expand awareness and participation.

Safety pledges, community meetings, self-defence programmes and other awareness activities are planned as part of the 28-day drive. The police have also emphasised a victim-centric approach when handling complaints.

The support and enforcement component covers follow-up on complaints, restraining orders, coordination with One Stop Centres and other support services, and timely assistance to survivors.

The framework requires effective follow-up after women approach the police.

The initiative will be assessed through a KPI-based performance evaluation system. According to the police, 40 per cent weightage has been assigned to improvements in crime-related indicators, while public feedback, police response and other parameters will also be considered.

Innovation and the adoption of best practices form part of the evaluation framework.

The performance mechanism is intended to make the results of the drive measurable, verifiable and comparable across police units.

The ‘Surakshit Shakti’ drive is aimed at strengthening coordination among police units and partner agencies while promoting evidence-based policing and greater community participation in efforts to prevent crimes against women.

–IANS

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