Ahmedabad to Station 100 'Nirbhaya' Vans to Ensure Women's Safety

In an attempt to ensure women’s safety in the city, Ahmedabad police will station 100 technologically equipped vans knowns as ‘Nirbhaya’. These vans are equipped with state-of-the-art technological advancements with efficient detection systems to identify and catch the culprits. The vans will be deployed by the 108 Abhayam Helpline team to reduce the time travel in responding to the crisis calls made by women in distress. Police officials believe that the Nirbhaya vans will be stationed by the commencement of the Navratri festival.  The van is aimed at controlling and penalizing eve-teasing, harassment, chain snatching and other crimes against women.

The vans will be deployed by the 108 Abhayam Helpline team to reduce the time travel in responding to the crisis calls made by women in distress.

The technological design of Nirbhaya van:

With technological advancements, ensuring safety of women from sexual crimes is a task that presents itself with new challenges every now and then for the police. For example, with the advent of hidden cameras, women are trapped into getting filmed unknowingly in the changing rooms at shops. So, to fight technologically advanced perpetrators, the police needs to be twice more efficient in using technology. The van is equipped with state-of-the-art technological advancements to increase its swiftness and to rightly detect and catch the culprit. It has a CCTV camera that will record the happenings of the area surrounding the police control room. Besides, it also has facial recognition, vehicle registration detection software and a database of past crime and criminal records.

Akshayraj Makwana, DCP Zone 5 and a member of the ‘Nirbhaya’ van project told The Indian Express that the van is also equipped with an automatic number plate recording system and a red-light violation detection system. These systems will help in catching the culprit if he tries to run away.

The stations where the van will be deployed:

The Nirbhaya Vans will be stationed at public areas in Ahmedabad that women frequently visit and re prone to facing sexual crimes. ‘Nirbhaya’ will be stationed outside malls, schools, colleges, markets and other busy areas.

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The vans will also assist She Teams of the city police. Each police station in the city has a She Team that deals with the harassment, chain snatching and other crimes issues against women. Each team has a woman Police Sub Inspector, four women constables and 2 men constables. It not only deals with the complaints of women outside of the police station but also the harassment or other complaints filed by women within the police control room. According to Makwana, the vans will have both women police officials as well as counselors to help the women victim.

Rudrani Kumari is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.

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