Haryana launched Mahila Police Volunteer Initiative

The Government of Haryana on 14 December 2016 launched the Mahila Police Volunteer initiative for the safety of women. The initiative was launched by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

With this launch, Haryana has become the first State in the country to adopt the scheme. The scheme is a part of a number of initiatives taken up by the Union Government to achieve gender equality.

What is Mahila Police Volunteer Scheme?

• It is a joint initiative of the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

• Its objective is to create a link between the police authorities and the local communities in villages.

• To achieve this objective, specially trained women volunteers will be appointed by the State government. The target is to appoint at least one volunteer in every village.

• The primary job of a volunteer is to keep an eye on situations where women in the village are harassed or their rights and entitlements are denied.

• The volunteers are selected through a laid out procedure from among the empowered, responsible, socially aware women who will facilitate police outreach on gender concerns.

• The volunteers are trained by the respective state police authorities on their role and responsibilities.

Steps taken by the Union Government to achieve gender neutrality are –

• The National Policy for Women was unveiled in May 2016. The policy identified seven priority areas for all round development of women.

• The seven priority areas are – Health including food security and nutrition, Education, Economy, Governance and Decision Making, Violence against Women, Enabling environment and Environment and Climate Change.

• Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative was launched in October 2014 to address the issue of declining child sex ratio.

• The Union Government advised the state governments to bring participation of women in the police force to 33%.

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