SHE teams turn harassers into volunteers. This news sends positive vibes in the society. The work done by the SHE teams is commendable. They have taken up the task seriously and Virtual counselling sessions by psychologists are yielding positive results.
In quite an unexpected turn, several people, who allegedly harassed women over mobile phone or other social media platforms, are now becoming volunteers of the SHE teams after undergoing counselling sessions, mostly virtual ones, with psychologists.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, senior officials of the SHE Teams had launched the virtual counselling for suspects and harassers based on the complaints received against them from victims. As it was not possible for the SHE Teams to counsel the harassers personally, they involved a team of psychologists, who would virtually counsel the suspects.
After the suspects were counselled they conveyed to the SHE Team officials that they repented what they did. Some harassers even broke down when psychologists asked them why they were harassing women. Subsequently, some of them readily agreed to join as SHE Teams volunteers to assist the police to curb such harassment.
DIG B Sumathi, Women Safety Wing said that the positive results of the counselling with harassers by psychologists were really surprising. She was happy that their initiative is changing their mindset.
She added that the approach of counselling is nothing new. They followed the same old routine, but it is made more interactive. SHE Teams have counselled as many as 143 majors and seven minors this month. 220 people attended counselling, in September. This number is lesser than before. According to the SHE Teams, they used to summon over 500 people every month earlier. They say that 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 sensitization apart from analyzing the reasons for their unpredictable behavior. At the same time, they were also warned that stern action would be taken if they repeated the offence.
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