The Hemant Soren Government has decided to set up Women Help Desks (WHD) at all Police stations across 24 districts of the state to tackle cases of crime against women. In the first phase, WHD will be set up at 300 selected police stations across Jharkhand. All police stations of the Ranchi district will have WHD in the first phase. These will be opened with the financial assistance of the Nirbhaya Fund.
To run WHD smoothly, 300 computer tablets will be purchased for which a technical committee has been formed by the ADG of CID Prashant Singh which will decide on the issue of purchase. The CID SP Kartik S has been appointed as the head of the technical committee who will be assisted by DSP (CID) Mahendra Singh Munda, NIC technical expert Ashok Kumar and Prem Kumar of the state data center. Other infrastructural facilities will be also arranged simultaneously.
WHD is likely to be opened by February and necessary training will be imparted to female cops and officials deployed for this. The state DGP Neeraj Kumar Sinha on November 2 last year, had reminded the Department of Home, prison and the Disaster Management about the pending proposal to set up an exclusive help desk for women.
In June 2020, Jharkhand Police had approved the proposal to set up 300 WHD. But due to Covid-19 pandemic, it could not be taken up further.
The Nirbhaya fund was set up in 2013 in response to a heinous rape case in Delhi where the victim died after brutal gang rape and assault. So far Rs 6212 Crore has been deposited to this fund exclusively to fund projects related to the safety and security of women.