The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : e-training programme for dispute resolution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 06, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

e-training programme for dispute resolution

LAW &ORDER Since the establishment of the AWPS, the volume of reporting of domestic disputes and violence has steadily increased, says Swahilya

Petitions at the Anna Nagar All Women Police Station (AWPS) do not wait for the inspector. The staff on duty have to just log on to the computer, punch in the name, age and details of the petition and just give a copy of the print-out to the complainant.

The Queens Award Data Management and Record Keeping Software has now enabled them to do away with the laborious process of writing down the complaint details by hand. "When a woman hurriedly comes to a police station , the new software enables the person on duty to take down the complainant's details fast and take remedial action. K. Radhakrishnan, Inspector General of Police, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, said domestic disputes and violence arising out of dowry and other related issues have forced many young married women to walk out of their marriage, face torture, harassment and even to attempt suicide.

Mr. Radhakrishnan through his experience in training women police personnel as DIG of Police, Training, found that they were "woefully ill-equipped and inadequately prepared to effectively intervene when a battered woman approaches them". Their "knowledge on dispute resolution, counselling and interviewing techniques was poor and needed focused attention." Record keeping was not up to the mark either.

Providing training would be able cover only few persons as not more than 700 could be trained per year in the Police Training College (PTC); it would take years to cover the entire force.

After visiting the Computer Science Engineering Department of the IIT, Chennai in October 2001 he got the idea of e-learning as a solution.

He submitted the proposal titled "web-based e-training programmes in dispute resolution, interviewing and record keeping for officers in AWPS" for `the Queen's Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development.'

The State Government and the police department helped in implementing this project mainly for developing web-based training in dispute resolution, interviewing techniques, use of computer programmes for data entry and analysis for women officers deployed in AWPS, and help the officers deploy advanced technology to enhance law enforcement skills.

Since the establishment of the AWPS, the volume of reporting of domestic disputes and violence has steadily increased.

As it was found that the women police did not record the intricate details of the petitions, which was 80 per cent of their daily work, a database was developed to record all the information received from the petitioner, counter petitioners and witnesses.

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