Pink Booths, before and after: Crimes against women down 16% in 7 months

Ghaziabad: Crimes against women have come down by 16% in the seven months since Sept last year, when Pink Booths were established in the city.
While 774 cases were reported between Sept 2023 and April this year, the city saw 922 FIRs filed in the seven months preceding the Pink Booths.

Officials said the booths — which are managed solely by women — had played a huge role in curbing such cases in the past few months.
On Sept 3 last year, Gen VK Singh (retd), the former minister of state for road transport and highways, had inaugurated 20 such booths across the city. While nine booths were set up in rural areas, six were inaugurated in the city and five in the trans-Hindon area.
Each of these booths is managed by 10 women cops, who work in shifts. Cops assigned to these booths are required to patrol areas that are vulnerable to crimes against women and ensure there isn’t any disruption of law and order. According to sources, cops from Pink Booths currently have a list of 89 hotspots.
Apart from patrolling, these booths have also started negotiating between couples in cases of family disputes. Pink Booths have been doubling as dispute redressal facilities since March 5 this year.
According to the seven months’ data since these booths came into being, dowry deaths and molestation have come down. Between Sept last year and this April, 25 cases of dowry death were registered in the city — almost 25% down from the 33 that were reported in the seven months from Jan 2023.
Familial disputes between couples also decreased. While 571 cases were registered under IPC Section 498A (assault on women) in the seven months before the booths were established, the number came down to 451 after Sept 2023.
Cases under IPC sections 294 (obscene acts or songs) and 354 (molestation) also went down by 16%. From Sept 2023 to April 2024, a total of 163 such cases were reported, while it was 193 the last time.
Police commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra agreed that Pink Booths had a huge role in “ensuring a safer environment for women on the roads and encouraging them to come forward and report crime”.
“Over the past few months, beat officers have reached out to several women and created WhatsApp groups. Of late, a total of 230 cops from these booths have been meeting women across the district on a daily basis. So far, 170 WhatsApp groups have been created, with 28,000 women as members,” the police chief said.
“Pink Booths have saved marriages as well. From Sept 2023 to April 2024, a total of 4,038 complaints of disputes between couples were received. Of these, 3,981 cases were solved at the booths itself,” he added.