The 181 helpline, started to help women in distress by the Punjab Police, has received 1.17 lakh calls within five months of its launch in the State.
“Out of the total 1.17 lakh calls, about 38,000 calls were related to various police inquiries and suggestions, and about 54,000 calls were feedback and follow-up calls,” said the state Additional Director General of Police (ADGP-Security) Dinkar Gupta, giving details about the helpline. Reviewing the status of the helpline, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal expressed satisfaction that 181 Scheme had not only taken off timely, but had also received over 1 lakh calls.
He said that he had himself checked satisfaction level of a number of complainants, all of whom had praised the service. Considering the success of the 181 helpline, Sukhbir has asked other Government departments, including revenue and health departments, to start similar helplines to improve delivery of services to the community, and to make the employees accountable to taxpayers. The ADGP said that over 16,000 complaints were received on the helpline, which were promptly conveyed to the concerned district police authorities for necessary action and were acted upon in a time bound manner.
Gupta said that since the launch of the service, the satisfaction level of the citizens vis-à-vis police response had shown a steady increase from 70 per cent in September to 73 per cent in October, 74 per cent in November and December 2013 and finally to 78 per cent in January. He said that this helpline had made a significant contribution to the ongoing Punjab Police campaign regarding zero tolerance to crimes against women. “About 42 per cent of the complainants (6,802) were women, who called to report domestic violence (1,177 cases), dowry related harassment (521 cases), obscene calls or SMS (458 cases), rape and rape attempt (170 cases), eve-teasing (134 cases) and sexual harassment (63 cases).