SHE Teams turn harassers into volunteers
Virtual counselling sessions by psychologists yield positive results
Hyderabad: In quite an unexpected turn, several persons, who allegedly harassed women over mobile phone or other social media platforms, are now turning a new leaf and becoming volunteers of SHE Teams after undergoing counselling sessions, mostly virtual ones, with psychologists.
SHE Teams had launched the virtual counselling for suspects after receiving complaints against them from victims. As it would not be possible for SHE Teams to summon these suspects and counsel them in person due to the Covid-19 pandemic, senior officials decided in September to go for virtual sessions involving a team of psychologists instead of direct walk-ins for suspects.
SHE Team officials say many of the suspects admitted that they repented what they did. Some even broke down when psychologists asked them why they were harassing women. Some of them readily agreed to join as SHE Teams volunteers to assist the police to curb such harassment.
“We are surprised to see the positive results of the counselling with harassers by psychologists. Our initiative is changing their mindset,” Women Safety Wing DIG B Sumathi said.
“The approach of counselling is old and routine, but we have made it more interactive. We have counselled as many as 143 majors and seven minors this month,” she said. In September, 220 people attended counselling. SHE Teams earlier used to summon over 500 people every month after receiving complaints against them but the number has now come down to less than 300.
Those summoned were formed into small groups for counselling for about five minutes on gender sensitisation apart from analysing the reasons for their unpredictable behaviour. At the same time, they were also warned that stern action would be taken if they repeated the offence.
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