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Men in khaki to act as marriage counsellors

LUCKNOW, DEC 12 . Police will soon don the mantle of marriage counsellors for couples locked in marital disputes in Uttar Pradesh.

DIG (Lucknow Range) R.K. Vishwakarma told UNI that he had issued directives to the SSPs of Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Unnao, Sitapur, Hardoi and Rae Bareli to set up marriage counselling centres in their offices at the earliest.

Stressing the need for such counselling centres he said, ``Couples faced with marital disputes simply approach the police station for help, where cops have no time or patience to listen to them, and simply register a case.''

He said the possibility of reconciliation between them through expert counselling mostly ends with a police FIR and a long legal battle. ``In urban policing, about 25 per cent of the cases pertain to marital discord,'' he claimed.

The scheme has been modelled on `Operation Vidai', which was launched by DIG (Agra Range) Alok Prasad and SSP, Etah, Anand Swaroop some months back. Mr Vishwakarma was posted as SSP, Agra, then.

He said the aim was to resolve disputes and give a happy `vidai' to couples. ``Besides earning goodwill for the force, such a scheme also highlights the humane face of the cops.''

A marriage counselling centre will be set up in the SSP's office for addressing such complaints. A DySP along with a woman sub-inspector will be in charge of the centre, supported by a staff of eight to 10 other officials.

Local NGOs, sociologists, psychologists and university students will also be roped in to counsel the couples, he informed. ``Such programmes can also provide PhD students with a fresh thesis subject which they will never find in books,'' he claimed.

The system is expected to function within a few days, once the force is allocated for the marriage counselling centre.

The DIG said all police station heads would be instructed to ensure that any complaint, which they feel could be resolved through a compromise must be referred to the marriage counselling centre.

``An FIR would be registered only if the couple is not willing to live together even after counselling, or the wife alleges dowry harassment,'' said Mr Vishwakarma.

Although most districts in UP, including Lucknow, have mahila thanas, where policewomen are posted for handling cases related to marital disputes and dowry harassment, the DIG admitted that ``such units have become more of a FIR-registration and investigation centre.''

Meanwhile, in a unique event, the Etah police invited 1,570 history-sheeters for a tea party on Wednesday but only 274 turned up for the event. SSP Anand Swaroop said the aim of such an invitation was to find ways in which police could seek help in checking the crime rate in the district. The aim was also to ask them what circumstances compelled them to resort to crime, and if given a chance, they would leave the path of crime, Mr Swaroop said. -- UNI

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