In a move to better equip women cops to handle rising crimes against women and eve teasers, Pune Police have chalked out a martial arts training programme starting January in which college girls too can participate.
Coming in the backdrop of the gang-rape incident in Delhi and attack on women cops by anti-social elements in Mumbai during a protest in August, the measure aims at boosting self-defence awareness in the city which, too, has seen a rising graph of crime against woman.
Elaborating on the proposed programme, Police Commissioner Gulabrao Pol said "The women police recruits will be imparted training in martial arts, including karate, starting next month to better equip them in self-defence and also curb increasing incidents of eve teasing."
He said college girls and other women, too, can avail of the training facility. "They can approach the police headquarter to get themselves enrolled for the course."
Pol said through women's vigilance committees set up involving NGOs, school and college girls have been urged to report cases of molestation and eve teasing without any hesitation, and prompt action will be taken in such matters.
Many women's groups have advised members of the fairer sex to carry pepper sprays and chilly powder as first line of self-defence. These handy and easy to carry devices can be used to repel an assaulter from a distance of about six feet and are being made available at a number of stores in Pune.
The city, over the last few years, has witnessed an alarming increase in crime against women with many women IT professionals required to use private transport at odd hours being targeted by goons.
According to official figures, 61 cases of rape, 43 of abduction and 65 of molestation were registered this year with NGOs claiming a large number of crime cases against women still going unreported.