After Sector V, Ultadanga now has a women’s police station. The wing is part of Ultadanga thana near the railway bridge. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated it from north Bengal on January 13.
All the police personnel in this wing are women and will exclusively investigate crimes against women such as eve-teasing, molestation, abduction, sexual crimes, torture over dowry etc in the Ultadanga area.
The thana is under Calcutta Police and the officer in charge is Konika Bose. The police station also has five other lady officers, 10 lady constables and five women home guards.
“The idea is to encourage women to come and record their complaints at any time of the day or night. Many women feel safer speaking to a lady officer,” said Bose.
The thana has a woman sentry posted outside along with a male constable who stands in front of the regular Ultadanga police station. Like in all police stations it is manned through the night and has a night patrol team as well.
Other city police stations have at least two women constables and a woman sub-inspector.
An officer posted at Lalbazar said that statistically women’s thanas record more crimes against women than general ones. “That’s because women can confide more freely in female personnel,” he said.
The women’s thana in Ultadanga came up after the state cabinet gave a green signal to four new women’s police stations last October. The other three have come up in Karaya, Behala and Taltala. This brings the total number of women’s police stations in Calcutta Police’s jurisdiction to 12.
Word from Sector V
A women’s police station was set up in Sector V two years ago. This wing is in the Electronics Complex Police Station, near IBM building, and response has been encouraging.
“The women’s thana records more complaints now compared to previous years,” said an officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, but added that there is a flipside.
“At times, officers of other police stations in the area tend to ask women complainants to visit the women’s wing in Sector V instead of taking down the report themselves. The purpose of a women’s thana is to help women but this doesn’t mean that regular police stations will refuse their complaints.”
