By Namrata Narayan
Today, we live in an environment of fearlessness. Today, women beat policing, pink patrolling, and women help desks operate in every district, police station, and neighborhood across the state. Before talking about women’s safety, I have a question for everyone: what kind of society do we want to build? One where daughters live confined by fear and apprehension, or one where they soar freely in the open sky? The state’s foremost duty is to protect its citizens, and when women constitute half the population, this duty becomes paramount. The true worship of Shakti also means ensuring every woman receives safety and respect. The Yogi government has placed this very principle at the center of its vision of governance: safety is not a favor, but a right. After taking office, the Yogi Adityanath government made women’s safety its highest priority, instilling a new sense of confidence among women. Women’s safety has now become a key pillar of a robust law-and-order system. The state government’s first and most effective step toward transforming this scenario was to increase women’s participation in the police force’s basic structure. For a long time, policing was regarded as a male-dominated field, which made women uncomfortable about approaching police stations to lodge their complaints. When a woman sees another woman in a khaki uniform patrolling the streets, the sense of security this instills in her is far more powerful than any government claim. To strengthen women’s safety, the state has established three women PAC battalions, and it is also rapidly setting up five more. The second major proof of the government’s commitment to women’s safety in Uttar Pradesh has been its efforts to free public places from anti-social elements. The ‘Anti-Romeo Squads’ were formed immediately after the government assumed office to completely curb incidents of eve-teasing involving women and girls while walking on the streets, going to school or college, or visiting markets. This extensive action instilled fear of the law among harassers and criminals, which is why the state’s daughters are now stepping out fearlessly. The government also understood that the cycle of safety could not be completed until society’s mindset changed and women themselves became aware of their rights. Mission Shakti completed the triangle of safety, respect and self-reliance. Through Mission Shakti, women became widely aware of their rights and the legal provisions protecting them, from schools, colleges, and gram panchayats to urban areas. Mission Shakti has bridged the gap, ensuring the benefits of government schemes reach women at the last mile. The Yogi government’s policies have resulted in a significant decline in serious and heinous crimes such as kidnapping, domestic violence, murder, and rape. Official figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) substantiate this. The ‘zero tolerance’ policy adopted against criminals and effective prosecution in courts have played a crucial role in this decline.
To break these psychological and practical barriers, the Yogi government provided a 20 percent reservation for women in police recruitment. Until 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Police had barely 10,000 women personnel. Today, this number has crossed 44,000. These squads have checked more than 5 crore 95 lakh individuals so far, according to the figures. Authorities let off more than 2 crore 20 lakh individuals after strict warnings, while taking stringent legal action against 42,226 harassers and criminals. The ‘Women and Child Security Organization 1090’ (Women Power Line) has been strengthened technologically and structurally to ensure women’s complaints are registered without delay and acted on promptly. To make this campaign more effective, ‘Mission Shakti Centers’ have been established at every police station, and more than 80,000 police personnel have received specialized training. In 2016, the rate of dowry harassment and murder cases in Uttar Pradesh stood at 2.4 per lakh women. This rate has declined to 1.8 per lakh women under the Yogi government, according to the 2024 figures. Similarly, 13,014 cases of kidnapping of women were registered in 2016, which fell substantially to 7,919 in 2024. Looking at the figures for extremely sensitive and heinous crimes such as rape, the rate stood at 4.6 in 2016 and has now declined to 2.8.
