By NewsGram Staff Writer

Haryana takes a step towards women empowerment by launching the state’s first ever all-women police station in Gurgaon.

A two-storey building in Gurgaon’s Sector 51–until now the office of the traffic police–is being converted into a “one-stop shop” police station for women, according to Gurgaon police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk.

The state is notorious for its sex ratio. The National Crime Records Bureau has recorded 8,974 cases of crime against women, including 3,501 cases of dowry harassment, 1,174 rapes cases and 230 cases of gang rape, according to a report in BBC.

The government plans to open 21 such police stations and each station would have at least 38 police personnel besides a support staff of 8-10 male police officials to conduct raids, apprehend the accused and other related duties, said Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) YP Singhal.

Inspector Umesh Bala, a police woman for 30 years has been chosen to lead the first all- women police station. To be

launched as a “Rakhi Gift” on August 28, the police department wishes to debunk the notion that police is gender-insensitive.

“In all cases of crime against women, the victims are generally more comfortable talking about it to women. By opening these, we are providing victims an option of reporting the matter to an all-women police station, if they so desire. For us, it will build up expertise and specialization of our teams in handling such crimes” says Singhal.