Delhi police to hire more counsellors

The Delhi police’s special police unit for women and children is all set to increase the number of its counsellors to nearly four times of present strength. This would provide better quality counselling services for women and child victims and also shorter waiting queues at the office of the special police unit.

At present, the unit has 22 counsellors on its team. On Saturday, a tender was floated to invite entries from eligible firms, institutions, organisations and groups for hiring as well as training and monitoring 60 professional counsellors at the district and sub-division levels. All of these counsellors would be contracted with the Delhi police for a period of two years and all the posts will be filled by women only, said senior police officers.

Once trained and inducted, these women would immediately provide crises intervention and psychosocial services to women and child survivors of violence, including survivors of sexual assault and child sexual abuse. They will also help couples on the verge of separation besides establishing linkages with multiple services essential for a comprehensive resp-onse such as police and justice responses.

Besides, these counsellors would provide personalised social services as per the requirements of the victims, including emotional, social and legal support.

“With 82 counsellors, we will become the first police force in this country with such a huge team to help the police in providing psychological aid to a large number of women and children who come to us and need support beyond normal policing duties. There are several victims of domestic violence or women who have been abandoned by their husbands who come to us and there was always a need to provide them the right advice at a crucial time,” said joint commissioner of police (special police unit for women and children) Robin Hibu.

According to data provided by the Delhi police, as many as 8,527 cases of crime against women were lodged in the last seven months of this year in comparison to 17,030 cases registered last year.