Lucknow: After a lot of propoganda on Anti-Romeo Squad, Uttar Pradesh police is all set to bring anti-Romeo Squad in new ‘avtaar’. Teams that will have trained, sensitized personnel to keep a check on eve-teasing and stalkers.
The new teams are said to have undergone a curriculum designed by Women Power Line, with 3 areas of focus: behavioural, legal and practical.
The controversial anti-Romeo squads, which drew widespread criticism for moral policing and harassing young couples in the name of women safety, will soon be back to patrol Uttar Pradesh streets. However, the state police chief claims, the new teams will comprise a polite, observant and trained set of personnel who will act as a deterrent only to eve-teasers and stalkers.
A pre-poll promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the drive was aimed at punishing molesters and harassers in public places. However, vigilante groups took over the exercise, often targeting young couples and handing out embarrassing punishments.
State DGP Sulkhan Singh in an exclusive interview to media said “Earlier, these squads were not trained. They were often over-enthusiastic and took foolish actions like chasing young people and grilling them,” this brought bad name to a well-meaning exercise.”
According to Singh, the new teams underwent a curriculum designed by the Women Power Line, a unit for prevention and detection of crime against women, with three areas of focus behavioural, legal and practical.
“They only have to be vigilant and observant about situations and see if a man or a group of men are harassing women. They are being taught that. Training is over in 30 of the 75 districts,” said the IPS officer who was DG (training) before being elevated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The top cop assured that there will be no more arrests, shaving of heads, blackening of faces or murga punishments (a stress position of holding ears) or chasing of couples at public parks, college campuses, railway stations and shopping malls in the name of curbing eve-teasing or protecting women.
Singh said the squad will also be asked to use body cameras to protect themselves from charges of human rights violations or other wild allegations. These teams will not be given the power to investigate but only detain the stalkers, rowdy elements and issue warnings after “careful observation of a situation”.
The curriculum also conducted sensitization classes of policemen where they were taught to how to behave with young couples and spot a suspicious character.
Supporting the need for such a squad, Singh said it was necessary to prevent teasing, molestation or harassment of women at public place and instill a sense of security among people.
The Allahabad high court in March had upheld Yogi Adityanath government’s move to set up these squads but cautioned that the police must act only as per law and not “outside its purview”.
The move invited criticism from several quarters following allegations that the police were invading private space of citizens. The opposition even sought Central intervention into what they alleged “violation of the Constitution” by allowing anti-Romeo squads to “ridicule democracy and the freedom of youngsters”.
