With incidents of molestation on the rise—the recent one being at Juhu early on the New Year’s Day when a mob molested two NRI women—the Mumbai Police will launch a dedicated helpline for women in the city, which Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil will formally inaugurate on February 20. The police are also planning to cover senior citizens and juveniles under the helpline.

“Since October or November last year, we have wanted to take an initiative to make women feel more secure and assured in the city. However, because of various incidents and important cases, we were not able to do so for some time. The Juhu molestation incident precipitated the need for such an initiative. Now we are launching a helpline for women. They can call up ‘103’ from their mobiles or landline phones to inform the police about anything they want to, and we will take immediate action,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K L Prasad told Newsline.

“Initially, we thought that the helpline would be meant only for street crimes against women. However, now we have decided that people can call up the helpline for any incident they want to report. Even domestic crimes will fall under this. A woman can call the helpline to inform the police about something she has seen which needs our attention. The subject of the call can be anything at all, as long as the caller wants the help of the police. As soon as the call is received, depending on the nature of the information, the police vehicle nearest to the spot will be rushed there,” said Prasad.

The helpline number will be operated by a specially-trained team, who have been given instructions on how to attend calls, politely and patiently, and pass on relevant details to the control room. Two women personnel have already been assigned for the helpline, and some other policemen are being trained for the job.

“Distress calls from senior citizens and juveniles might also be included in this initiative, but since we already have an elderline in place for senior citizens, this has not been finalised,” said Prasad.

According to Prasad, this is how the helpline will function: On dialling 103, a caller will be given three different options. The caller will be asked to dial 1 for women-related issues, 2 for issues related to senior citizens, and 3 for those related to juveniles.

“We were planning to launch the helpline on February 19, as it was the birth date of Shivaji’s mother, who was a very strong woman and a great influence on him. However, due to some issues, it will now be launched by the Deputy CM on February 20 at Azad Maidan police club. We will advertise the landline through hoardings across the city,” said Prasad.