Students protest against the insecurity of women in New Delhi. (Reuters file picture)

New Delhi, July 31: Delhi police may not take hours to respond to women’s distress calls anymore.

The police have kicked off nine measures to ensure the safety of women after its commissioner was summoned by Union home minister Shivraj Patil on July 21 following the rape of a woman in a moving van.

Among these are several steps to prevent rape, molestation and sexual harassment on the ground. The police will now have a round-the-clock “women mobile team” to attend to urgent and distress calls from women, and a 24-hour helpline number, 1991.

Plain-clothes police will be stationed at vulnerable points across the city and women constables posted in patrol teams, connected to the police control room (PCR), around prominent women’s colleges.

On May 8, a college student was gangraped in a car that criss-crossed Delhi for two-and-a-half hours. A friend of the victim had informed the police immediately after the street abduction, but the law enforcers allegedly reacted late, inviting a rap from the National Commission for Women.

The other steps include the strengthening of the “crime against women cell”, constitution of “rape crisis intervention centres” to counsel victims and families, investigation of rape and related crimes by women police officers and appointment of policewomen as investigating officers in such cases.

The police will also undertake legal awareness and publicity campaigns to educate women about how and when to approach the law. A move is also afoot to set up special sessions courts with women judges to try crimes against women.

Police commissioner K.K. Paul said work on all the proposals is in progress.

“We have already implemented certain steps for immediate prevention, like posting women constables in PCR patrols and plain-clothes police at vulnerable points. The others are being worked out fast.”

According to the National Crimes Record Bureau, crimes against women ? dowry deaths, rapes, molestation, kidnapping and sexual harassment ? have witnessed a marginal decrease in the country: from 133,935 cases in 2001 to 133,865 in 2004.

But during the same period, such crimes have risen steadily in New Delhi, from 3,870 to 5,568.