To strengthen women’s helpline, Delhi Police to increase phone lines
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police have often not been able to get back to all the callers who call on its women’s helpline, owing to space constraints and lack of telephone lines.
To counter this, taking a cue from the UP Police’s Women Power Line, the force is planning to increase its telephone lines to ensure that the distress calls are answered.
Following a recent visit to the control room of UP Police’s Power Line, a helpline for women facing harassment, Delhi Police’s PCR unit has decided to adapt to UP Police’s successful methods.
“We saw that they get back to every caller who calls on 1090. But here, we aren’t able to do so since we have an old system in place. We have 10 telephone lines for women’s helpline and two telephone lines for getting back to callers,” said a senior police officer.
In run up to launch of the ambitious helpline 112 – which will be India’s equivalent to 911 in the United States – an all-inone emergency service of the US, Delhi Police’s PCR unit is looking to pluck all the gaps that exit in its current system.
“We visited UP Police’s Women Power Line control room because they have a new system in place and to see how they function. We will also be visiting Bangalore Police’s control room to see how they function,” the officer added.
The Delhi Police women’s helplines handle over 50,000 calls in a year. In 2015, they handled 53,554 calls and last year, they handled 53,297 calls.
Meanwhile, eight years after they were allotted the work of installing CCTV surveillance system in different market places, Delhi Police have reported that it has managed to install just over 4,000 CCTV Cameras. The Ministry of Home Affairs had in 2008 awarded the work of installation of CCTV surveillance system in different market places and border check-posts in phases, according to the annual report of Delhi Police.
“A total of 4,074 CCTV cameras have already been installed at various locations in different phases. 85 cameras were installed in 2016,” said the report.