Nine years after a Central law was passed and six years after Gujarat decided to implement it, women police stations across Gujarat will now serve as Special Juvenile Police Units under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000.

Gujarat Police is now preparing to train its women officers to handle cases of Juvenile Justice and Immoral Trafficking in the state.

DIG, CID (Women’s Cell) Meera Ramnivas, who is also the nodal officer for juvenile, children and women trafficking cases, is leading this initiative.

The Cell has finished training women officers in four ranges — Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Surat, while those of the Junagadh, Surat and Border ranges will be trained in the coming days.

Ramnivas said: “Many officers do not know how to deal with juveniles in cases of trafficking, abduction and exploitation. So they need to be educated first on what trafficking is and how it needs to be tackled. We had lawyers, child rights activists, and senior police officers lecturing them.”

Women police stations with children protection cells and crisis intervention centres were first chosen for the training. Later, other women police stations in the main cities and districts were included in it.

Ramnivas said there is a need to debunk the myth that trafficking is equivalent to prostitution, adding that the basic concepts need to be de-mystified and cleared. The thrust of this initiative is to focus on juveniles in need of care and protection, she said.

She added: “Today, trafficking involves child labour, bonded labour, begging, forced migration and abduction. In the case of juveniles, its implications are the worst. The officers need to shift their focus from juveniles in conflict with law to juveniles who need care and protection. Usually, the children in conflict with law are noticed, but there are thousands of children who are either abducted, abandoned or go missing. We are working to change the women officers’ perspectives towards juveniles, followed by their treatment of these children.”

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