Not any women special police station in Bihar

Women in Bihar still fear lodging a case with a male-dominated police station. To date there is no exclusive police station for women in Bihar where they can lodge their complaints.

Out of the 881 police stations in Bihar, there is not a single separate police station for women. CM Nitish Kumar had initiated a number of measures to ensure women's empowerment, the first being reservation of 50 per cent posts for them in the Panchayati Raj institutions and local bodies.

In a RTI query, state police headquarters admitted there is not a single women police station in Bihar. Out of the 881 police stations, there are only 10 separate police stations for scheduled castes in the state.

The proposal for setting up separate women police stations one each at Patna, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga and Gaya are still under consideration. The home department, in its annual report tabled in the state legislature in the last monsoon session, said that the government is committed to set up separate police stations for women so that they could lodge their complaints without any fear.

The government was also committed to set up psychological support center and helpline exclusively for women and children.

Incidentally, the government report suggests that incidents of atrocities on women in Bihar witnessed a rise in 2008 especially in the cases related to abduction, dowry-related deaths, molestation, eve-teasing and rape.

According to the figures compiled by the state police headquarters, as many as 6,186 cases of atrocities (1,041 incidents related to rape, 1,494 kidnapping, 1,233 murder for dowry, 2,230 dowry harassment and 188 cases of eve-teasing and molestation) were registered against women across Bihar in 2008.

A comparative study of the figures available clearly indicates there was increase in such incidents in 2008 compared to the corresponding period the previous year. While 1,012 cases were registered in connection with kidnapping of women in 2007, the number went up to 1,494 in 2008.

The number of dowry death rose from 1,226 in 2007 to 1,233 in 2008. Similarly, cases of atrocities perpetrated on women for dowry rose to 2,230 in 2008 from 1,493 in 2007.

Cases relating to eve-teasing and molestation shot up to 188 during 2008, 20 more than the previous year. The recent disrobing of a woman in Patna in full public view on the busy Exhibition Road had put the NDA government on the back foot. CM Nitish Kumar had described the stripping of the woman in public view as a slur on a civilized society.link