PUNJAB POLICE LAUNCHES AMBITIOUS STATE-WIDE TRAINING PROJECT FOR MAINSTREAMING WOMEN POLICE — TRAINING OF TRAINERS PROGRAMME AT PPA PHILLAUR MARKS THE FIRST PHASE OF EVIDENCE-BASED PROJECT COVERING 384 POLICE STATIONS — 2000 POLICE OFFICIALS TO BE TRAINED TO BUILD CAPACITY FOR GENDER-RESPONSIVE POLICING, SAYS SPL DGP GURPREET DEO CHANDIGARH, December 4: The Punjab Police has embarked on a landmark initiative, the “Mainstreaming of Women Police” project, aimed at comprehensively assessing and enhancing the role and integration of women police officers across the state. The project commenced with a three-day Training of Trainers (ToT) programme held at the Punjab Police Academy (PPA), Phillaur from December 2 to 4, 2025. The ToT was organised by the Community Affairs Division (CAD) Wing of Punjab Police in partnership with the Hartek Foundation. The session trained approximately 60 master trainers, comprising four senior police officers each from 13 districts of Punjab. These officers will now be responsible for cascading the training in their respective districts. The training curriculum covered critical modules including Shaping the Police Persona, Gender Sensitisation, the Role of Police in Delivering Justice to Underserved Sections, and Strategies for Mainstreaming Women Officers within the traditionally male-dominated police force. Special emphasis was placed on the responsibilities of senior officers in fostering the professional development of women in police. Addressing the significance of the initiative, Special DGP Community Affairs Division (CAD) Gurpreet Kaur Deo said that this ambitious project is being conducted as a part of the Project “Mainstreaming of Women Police” whereby an attempt is being made for evidence based assessment of the success of the nationwide roll-out of the women helpdesk project of the Government of India wherein two women officials have been posted in each of the 384 Police stations in Punjab. To ensure a scientific assessment of the training's impact, Punjab Police has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the renowned non-governmental organisation J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab), which specialises in policy analysis through Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). Under this project, 288 Police stations in the State will take part in a state wide training programme in which the approximately 100-120 Master trainers trained by CAD Wing in partnership with PPA, Phillaur and an NGO Hartek Foundation will conduct trainings in each of the 288 Police stations of the State with inputs on role of women in society and marginalisation of women police within the police force on account of gender stereotypes and the policing sub-culture which is focused on core policing areas such as maintenance of law & order, prevention and detection of crime, tracking and dealing with gangsters and drug dealers, terrorism etc. whereas in comparison lesser emphasis is placed on equally important emerging areas of police intervention, such as cyber-crime, crime against women, children and the elderly, traffic issues, police response and behavior and police image. About 96 Police stations in the State will not receive any training and will be the control police stations. The 120 selected Master trainers for this project will receive another round of training with advanced inputs in February, 2026 after which the Master trainers will impart training to selected police officials in the Police Stations in their districts in three rounds extending from March, 2026 to June, 2026. The Special DGP said that prior to the commencement of training in the police stations, J-Pal will conduct a baseline survey of police respondents in each of the 288 police stations regarding their perception of women in the police and gender sensitivity. At the end of the district trainings, J-PAL will conduct an end line survey of police respondents earlier covered in the baseline survey and also of the citizens to finally draw conclusions regarding change in gender perceptions and roles of women officials in the police officials, she added. Meanwhile, a second ToT session for master trainers from the remaining 15 districts is scheduled at PPA Phillaur from December 22 to 24, 2025. In total, the project aims to directly train over 2000 police officials, building institutional capacity for a more inclusive and effective policing environment in Punjab.