Will online FIRs make a difference?
At a seminar on ‘Police and Judicial Reforms’ hosted by ALL Ladies League in association with Pioneer last week a proposal was put forth for Online FIRs by Harbeen Arora, Global Chairperson of ALL Ladies League (a global women’s chamber).
The panel included Bhim Sain Bassi, Police Commissioner, Delhi, Pinky Anand, Additional Solicitor General of India, Chandan Mitra, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh and Editor-in-Chief of Pioneer.
Harbeen Arora of ALL Ladies League said,
Women across the country want the power to approach police without fear and for that want the ability to file FIRs online. This will enable them to report their problems more as the fear and perceived harassment of going to a police station will not be there. To restore the faith of the masses in the system and to involve citizens in making a secure society, online FIRs and vigilance portals can be the most promising and effective way.
Other than women, the online FIRs will empower other vulnerable groups too such as children and senior citizens.
HerStory spoke with a few experts to know their thoughts on Online FIRs and how it would change things.
Pallavi Pareek, Co-founder at iPleaders.in, says, “Online FIRs are a novel concept and can surely work. But to expect it to be a holistic solution is far-fetched. It has to be complemented by supporting infrastructure, sensitization programs and so on. If it is done, perhaps a big reason for its failure will be the immaturity of the users.”
Dona Fernandes, the Founder of Vimochna, a forum for women’s rights based in Bangalore , is of the opinion that the bulk of women who have no access to technology will continue to go to the police station to file a complaint. “How do we track things after an online FIR has been registered? How does one follow the case or know if there has been some movement in the case. Even if there is some kind of tracking mechanism, how frequently the updates will show. With things moving online there has to be accountability.”
Dona, from her own experience with police complaints and the police, brings out some valid points. She says, “there will be language issues, can your written complaint in English be read by the police who know only Kannada say in the case of Bangalore. Or how does one decide the length of the complaint.”
Dona says, “that even the police are not often tech savvy and then there are other logistic issues like, say cartridge or paper is over.”
As regards the questions of technology and its access to a few, Pallavi says, “This facility will only benefit the educated women of this country. Let us not expect this to solve the issues of embarrassment, mental torture, physical and sexual assaults, social shaming associated with problems faced by the masses (women across the country) while filing FIRs. For instance, it is normal for police officers to ask for details of the assault in a very insinuating manner and I have faced this problem myself. It is a great start and I urge everyone to increase the technical awareness of women if this concept has to work.”
According to B. Dayanand, Commissioner of Police, Mysuru the registering of FIR from remote centres was introduced in December. “Bangalore is the only city where an FIR can be registered from a remote centre through a kiosk set up by the police. Through video conferencing any questions that need to be asked from the victim and others can be done too.”
Talking about this new initiative he says, “such kiosks around the city in public places will enable people to reach out to us quickly and conveniently.”
Online FIRs may not solve the problem for everyone but as long as complaints are heard and there is an ease of reporting a crime or filing a complaint, the initiative will be welcomed by many.