Dakshina Kannada women police force personnel learn self-defence techniques

MANGALURU: Whenever violence is reported, it is common to find three to four police personnel escorting the accused to the nearest police van from the scene of action.

This, according to

Karthik S Kateel

, CEO and Founder, Swaraksha for

Women Trust

, is a waste of resources, especially during a crisis. After examining several international self-defence videos and understanding the needs of the local police, Karthik said one personnel can handle the above situation. He has designed a few self-defence techniques exclusively for the police force. In the first phase, about 30 women police personnel from Puttur were trained by him, recently.

Karthik who has trained 1.6 lakh women and students in basic self-defence techniques across Karnataka told TOI, “The women police were taught simple self-defence techniques with a focus on how to make arrests at the time of violence. Today, especially when we have live coverage by the media, it is bad to see a team of five policemen escorting an accused to the police van. During the training session that was conducted for half a day, simple techniques were taught to the women. Self-defence is not only about karate. The physique of the accused is irrelevant. The women were trained in seven techniques including the universal lock as well as how to protect themselves,” he said.

Mixed martial artist Karthik has trained women and students from 495 institutions by holding more than 800 workshops in the last five years. The demonstrations are conducted along with his mother Shobhalatha. He said that the

Dakshina Kannada

district police approached him through additional superintendent of police (ASP) Dr

Amathe Vikram

, who got to know about Karthik and his classes through special Pocso court Mysuru judge Jayashree. “The district police is planning to introduce this programme to its entire force in the near future. The women police from Bantwal will be trained shortly. The feedback from the women trained through this programme has been amazing, and my confidence has doubled because they are happy,” he said.

Dakshina Kannada superintendent of police (SP) B M

Laxmi Prasad

said, “The first batch of women who were trained were from the Rani Abbakka Pade—a women’s squad of the Dakshina Kannada police. This project was taken up on a pilot basis, and is based on the response from the constabulary. It will be extended further. We hope to conduct a refresher course in the future.”

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