City Pulse

The Bengaluru City Police and the Hans Seidel—Stiftung India with the support of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy organized a conference on “Safe Cities”, with a special focus on Women’s Safety. The conference held on December 6 at the Police Commissioner’s Office under the aegis of the Community Policing initiative of the Bengaluru City Police, is supported by Janaagraha.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Mr. Bhaskar Rao IPS in his introductory remarks said, “Safety of women in India’s cities is besides being a humanitarian challenge, one of the foremost economic challenges of the 21st century as well. Domestic violence, access to safe public spaces, education and livelihood opportunities are some of many facets to women safety in India’s cities”.

He further added that Bengaluru city police is fully committed to ensuring public safety especially for women and children, and has taken very specific steps towards the same.

“Women’s safety in public spaces can catalyze several development agendas at the same time, covering both soft and hard infrastructure,” said Mr. P.K. Hormis Tharakan, Chair of the Community Policing Advisory Group and Former Chief of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), Former Director General of Kerala Police. “Clamping down on violence and sexual harassment, increasing women’s participation in the workforce, making city streets walkable, ensuring public spaces are well-lit and public transport is adequate and safe can all by catalyzed through the singular agenda of women’s safety in public spaces, in turn, ” added Dr ST Ramesh, Member of the CPAG and a Former DG-IGP of Karnataka Police. 

“To achieve this, the cooperation between civil society and the authorities is crucial,” said Mr. Volker Plän, Director of Hanns Seidel-Stiftung India. “Mutual understanding and trust require safety, but safety also requires mutual trust”. 

The conference witnessed three panel discussions on – 1. Women and Child Safety Challenges, 2. Citizen Participation with Police to Improve Neighbourhood Safety and 3. Collaboration among Government Agencies to Improve Neighbourhood Safety with participation from a wide spectrum of stakeholders from the Bengaluru City Police, community liaison officers and Area Suraksha Mitras (ASMs) from the Community Policing initiative and other civil society members. 

“The Community Policing initiative in Bengaluru was scaled to all 108 police stations in Bengaluru earlier this year, with one CLO per police station identified from the police and over 650 ASM’s mobilized to serve as citizen volunteers for neighbourhood safety” said Mr. Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagraha.  

Citizens interested in volunteering as ASMs can contact Deepak Naik - Manager, Community Policing at deepak.naik@janaagraha.org and on 9611293961.