Kiran attacks policing model, says it has no place for woman lea

New Delhi, Oct 1 (UNI) The First woman Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi, who was recently superseded for heading the Delhi Police, today gave full vent to her discontent over the country's policing model, saying it was ''confused, outmoded and had no place for woman as a leader''.

''Today's policing model is mainly based on the pre-independence one which was brought into being by the Police Act of 1861. It is a reactive model, a creation of the male mindset which will not have woman as a leader,'' Ms Bedi said.

Her outburst against the system came while speaking on the theme of 'Safe City' at a seminar organised by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation on the occasion of the World Habitat Day.

In the current policing model, women will continue to be victim of crime, said Ms Bedi, who is currently serving as Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development.

She said the deficiency of the system was brought out by the Supreme Court when it last year underlined the urgency of amending and specific needs of the country.

The preindependence model was a reactive model. It was designed to control, and to deliver a particular result, and it was obviously an unjust model which unfortuntely was still in vogue in independent India, she lamented.

''I exactly don't know if our country has any policing model at all, and if it has some what kind of a model was it,'' she said in a sarcastic vein.

Ms Bedi, who earned distinction for giving a humane touch to Jail administration during her tenure as Direcor Geeneral of the Central Tihar Jail here, suggested a 'police-public' model which would have participation of the people in policing.

As an example, she narrated how during her brief stint as IG, Chandigrah, she ensured presence of a woman representative of NGOs in the duty room at police stations, following which women felt at ease to approach the police and had their FIRs lodged more easily, with the result that the incidence of crime declined.

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