• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Mythili Rajkumar
N.S. Vageesh

K. Radhakrishnan

Radhakrishnan's project has a title that can leave you breathless: "Web-based e-training programmes in dispute resolution, interviewing and record keeping for officers in women police stations in Tamil Nadu."

The project won the Queen's award for Innovation in Police Training and Development in mid- 2002.

The Queen's award is administered by the British Home Office and is given to four of the best project proposals from police officers within the UK and 54 countries in Commonwealth. The award money, £15,000, has been used as seed money for implementing the project in Tamil Nadu.

The pilot stage is now over. The customisation of the software for other needs and implementation are almost done too.

The training modules have elicited so much enthusiasm that they are now going to be part of the police training college's curriculum.

Interestingly, around 150 police officers have been trained in technology to help put the project in place with in-house expertise, both for operational and maintenance support. Only for the software development related to the training modules did the police seek help from a Hyderabad-based software company.

The award amount was used as seed money for purchase of hardware — PCs, printers, etc, towards phone, Internet charges, and for training, and travel expenses.

Interestingly, the project is enabling the full digitisation of the functioning and record-keeping of all-women police stations. All aspects of station administration, including things such as pay, attendance, leave registers, sentry duty allotments, arms issue etc, will now be available for inspection by authorities at the click of a mouse.

Hand-written and paper documents are being scanned and uploaded into the system. So, one now can access hundreds of cases and analytical reports at the click of a mouse.

A computerised database also helps police learn and strategise proactively.

Both Radhakrishnan and Saraswathi are very happy with one other key benefit of the project — more women are now coming forward to report abuses against them. For police have, up to now, been taking action only on the minuscule percentage of reported crimes.

Also, the difference in working between police stations with e-learning, and the rest was assessed.

Women petitioners were sounded out on whether the training of the policewomen made a difference to them. It did.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Heard the news?

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line