For each victim, an individual file with a specific identity is opened to record the details. First the immediate needs have to be met. Such as, where to put the complainant/aggrieved woman up for the day or night, as the case may be. For women already hurting from abuse, the stigma of being seen in the police station is even more unbearable.

The official now opens another window in the program — unveiling an exhaustive directory of shelter homes, lawyers, doctors, helplines for women and children, or children's homes. Depending on the urgency of the situation, and prioritising the course of action (See box: A score to save lives), the officer makes appropriate arrangements for the victim. It's now time to contact the accused and the witnesses. A long process unfolds. Each word uttered by the accused, or others involved in the case, is recorded. The case sheet for each victim is very exhaustive. For instance, there is an evidence column where photos of the couple and their marriage certificate are stored. There's even a sridhan register — to track dowry details. The program also automatically assigns and sorts information. So exhaustive are the details that about 254 fields of data generation are built into the package, covering the economic, cultural and social contexts that determine the options open to the victim.

The software also lists the various types of abuse (by what section of the law) and the punitive terms they attract, so the police official on duty will have no difficulty in understanding whether a particular action constitutes abuse or not. In police parlance, everything is in place for an FIR (First Information Report), for case registration.

From this follows the investigation, and the dispute settlement — which could be amicable or end in legal action through a court of law. Generally a combination of counselling and threats works in most cases, feel officials.

Where only a legal remedy is possible, the case's progression through various judicial layers and the final court judgement are recorded meticulously in each file.

What must truly be helpful for police officials is that these details do not have to be keyed in every time. From the FIR to the case diary to the remand reports, to the final judgment, the system stores everything for you, with a one-time entry for each new fact. The system is not only meticulous but also transparent. Earlier, police officials would likely listen with pen and paper in hand. But in relying merely on the individual's interviewing skills and memory of the investigating officer, and the physical transfer of information, so much can be lost. But when a computer program opens a list of questions that you need to ask, the scope for missing out on something important is almost non-existent. And the victim need not make repeat visits for clarifications.

And even if the concerned case officer gets transferred, the investigation proceeds smoothly. And the technology also makes it possible for superior officers to monitor cases at each police station.

Into the realms of sociology

From this database of cases, trends can be gleaned that have wide ramifications for more proactive and preventive policing. For instance, if you want to check whether housewives are more prone to certain kinds of abuses as against career women, the system fetches the list of housewives-victims, and details pertaining to them. Or you might want an age-wise profile of the victims. Is a particular area more prone to a particular kind of abuse? If so, why? Is economic deprivation leading to certain kinds of abuses? In technology terms, this is an example of data storage, data retrieval, and data mining.

The inspiration behind this project is K. Radhakrishnan, IPS, and currently Inspector-General (Vigilance and Anti-Corruption) whose project proposal won the Queen's award for Innovation in Police Training and Development. (See box: Queen among projects).

Radhakrishnan's passion to make a difference and his field experience in dealing with issues related to domestic violence led him to technology. The process began at the right end, too, one could say.

Saraswathi, Inspector and Station House Officer of the All-women police station, Adyar, Chennai, says there was encouragement and active interest from top officials.

Radhakrishnan interacted continuously with women police officials, with the PCVC (Society for the Prevention of Crime and Victim Care) and a psychologist, Dr Mangai Natarajan, a US-based consultant, on the common cases women police handled, and how they could do their work differently. Based on their research and feedback, the training programme (See box: Learning the basics) was drawn up.

The aim was to develop Web-based training in dispute resolution, interviewing techniques and using the computer for data entry and analyses.

The standardisation of the learning content and the simulation of cases on screen also helped the women officers see how their own anger, frustration or impatience could have adverse impact on women petitioners seeking their help. They learned when to use and when not to use dispute resolution techniques, and the importance of dealing sympathetically, yet objectively, with petitioners and counter-petitioners.

"We have become refined, mature and skilled in our approach to dealing with problems," says Saraswathi. Also, women may not always be the real victims. There have been instances, she says, where they sought to play victim just to settle scores with their menfolk and in-laws. She says the e-learning helps the officer on duty to sense a real from a foisted case.

Saraswathi stresses the difference e-learning has made. The Police Training College in Chennai could not have accommodated all of them at one go. Also, to learn there, they would have had to suspend their regular duties and be dislocated physically. Instead, with online learning, they learnt at their own pace, but missed no lesson. For instance, lunch break at the Adyar all-women police station could find Vanaja, one of the participants, catching up with her lesson for the day.

Thus, in a matter of months, 30 fully-trained policewomen have emerged. This experiment will now be expanded on a wider scale to cover all the 188 all-women police stations in Tamil Nadu. Conventional, institution-based training would take about six years to train the 7,000 policewomen in Tamil Nadu. E-learning thus became the optimal solution to solve the problem of training a large force and bridging the gap of inadequate infrastructure. And the edge to the training is that it has turned these cops into negotiators, mediators, and counsellors too, roles that they could perhaps apply to other law and order contexts in life.

And what is a matter of pride for Tamil Nadu is that its women police make up a fourth of the total women police in India. Now that they are getting e-mpowered, violent husbands and difficult mothers-in-law had better think twice before they raise their hand in future!

A score to save lives

The police station is the last resort for women in distress. They approach us only when they think they have no other option," says Radhakrishnan. "The minute they feel we too have failed to help them, they'll simply walk out of the station and end their lives."

That's why, as part of the Queeen's award programme, police are using software that generates a danger score for each victim of domestic violence seeking their intervention. How does the programme work? It has about 15 built-in questions. The official on duty talking to the woman complainant opens the programme on her screen as part of the interviewing of the woman. She then sounds her out on these questions, and fills in the `yes' and `no' replies, besides other details. The questions are broadly on these lines:

The woman's replies to these questions are interpreted by the system to generate a score for each victim along three categories: High risk, moderate risk, and low risk. If the woman complainant falls in the high-risk category, it means she needs immediate help and her case brooks no delay. She might need psychiatric counselling right away. With moderate risk, the police have a little more time to weigh their aid options. And of course, low risk means they need fear no suicide attempts on the woman's part and can plan their handling of the case accordingly.

The software thus sensitises the police force to the gravity of the case and prompts an appropriate intervention strategy.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

mythili@thehindu.co.in

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