Guwahati,  The Assam government has undertaken a multidisciplinary approach to combat the crime against women and children, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said on Thursday.

Addressing a meeting of all stakeholders on women and child safety, he said that the multidisciplinary approach has been undertaken in order to effectively combat and tackle the crime against women and children.

He said that the meeting was organised with the objective of developing a mechanism of convergence among the stakeholders including the police, Social Welfare, Education, Labour, Judicial, and Health Departments and other government organisations including the State Commission for Women, Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, NGOs, and educational institutes which need to work in close coordination for a synergistic approach to address the issues related to women and children safety.

Participating in the discussion, State Commission for Women Chairperson Hemaprabha Barthakur stressed the need for a multipronged approach and elaborated the steps taken by the Commission in the recent times to combat this menace.

Additional Director General of Police, CID, A.Y.V. Krishna listed the steps taken by state police to deal with crimes against women and children, including setting up of a division headed by a Superintendent of Police rank officer for crime against women and children in CID Headquarters for monitoring heinous crimes against women and children and setting up of Special Cells for Women in 11 districts in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) as a multi-agency approach with an aim to provide legal, psychological and counselling to women victims.

The Assam government recently signed a MoU with TISS to deal with the issues related to women and children. Special Juvenile Police Units, headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police, are now operational in all districts with a child welfare officer in each police station.

Women Help Desks have been started in 320 police Stations, exclusive training programmes for more than 1,330 police officers conducted by CID in the last two years, a Family Counselling Centre started at CID headquarters, Sishu Mitra Resource Centre set up in collaboration with UNICEF, and anti-human trafficking units set up in all districts.

Krishna also said that a total of 161 human trafficking cases were registered in the last one year, 123 traffickers arrested, and 279 victims, including 110 children, rescued.