the goan I network
MARGAO
The women police station located in a building annex in the South Goa police headquarters at Margao is back in the news again.
Around two years after women rights activist Auda Viegas, freedom fighter Gurunath Kelekar and Madgavkars in general staged a dharna outside the Margao police station to highlight the plight of the lone women police station, the women’s unit of the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday came to meet district police chief South, Arvind Gawas, with a plea to provide the required infrastructure for the effective functioning of the women’s police station.
Led by Rajeshree Nagarsekar, the AAP women’s unit demanded that the WPS, which has been functioning from a single room and shared by the anti-human trafficking cell, should be immediately shifted to the Old Collectorate building, just across the police headquarters.
In the memorandum, the Front drew the attention of the district police chief to the space constraints that has hit the women police station since its inception. “The space allotted to the WPS is one room. It is mandatory that there be a counselling room and a room for recording the statements, besides a waiting room for those accompanying the complainant or the victim,” the memorandum stated.
Rajeshree pointed out that the Old Collectorate building not only has ample space to run the facility, but added that having a dedicated space for the WPS will also serve the purpose of such facility, which is basically to address issues involving women, to empower and encourage women to come to the facility without fear, as most cases never come to light as victims don’t turn up at the station fearing the police.
“Shifting the unit to this building will create a friendly atmosphere to deliver justice and meeting this demand should be the top priority of the government,” she said, adding ‘it is time the government focuses on improving policing. Things would not change for survivors of crimes till our police force remains men-dominated and where women fear to approach police stations to report crime against them. Complete overhaul of the police system is the need of the hour’.
Rajeshree pointed out that deprived of all basic amenities and severely lacking in facilities, the South Goa WPS, which is supposed to cater to the entire South Goa women population, belies all government claims of women’s development and empowerment, adding that the dismal state of affairs is symptomatic of the discrimination against women that is characteristic of our society.
