Barely a month after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his concern over the low conviction rates in cases of atrocities against the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes, Gujarat seems to have woken up.

In a bid to improve the dismal conviction rate in these cases in the state, the government now wants to “sensitse” the police and the public prosecutors.

The police will be the first to receive the training followed by all public prosecutors.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Balwant Singh, said: “Sensitisation is an ongoing process and we have been doing it from time to time. We want to remove all the deficiencies in the system so that conviction rate in cases of atrocities against SC-STs can be improved.”

He added: “We are trying to conduct similar sensitisation sessions for public prosecutors also as they represent the state during the trials of these cases. Talks with the state legal department are on in this regard.”

Acting on the instructions of the department of Social Justice and Empowerment, the state police top brass has recently ordered for special sensitisation seminar and workshop to be conducted for trainee police personnel in the Gujarat Police Academy (GPA) and three other training schools in the state from this month.

A circular of the office of Additional Director General of Police (Training) sent on October 1 to GPA and police training schools has called for making these seminars part of the police training curriculum.

P C Thakur, the in-charge Inspector General of Police, Training, said: “These seminars and workshops will be conducted along with the routine classes on the nitty-gritty of Atrocity Act.”

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