Bihar Police has called for a child-sensitive policing approach as adolescents face rising risks linked to gender-based violence, trafficking and cybercrime. The call was made at a capacity-building workshop in Patna attended by around 160 police personnel from specialist and district-level units.
The workshop, titled “Adolescents at the Intersection of Gender and Vulnerability: Strengthening Frontline Responses”, was held at Sardar Patel Bhawan on Wednesday. It brought together officers from the Deputy Superintendent of Police Special Crime unit, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Child Welfare Police Units from districts across Bihar and the Weaker Section of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The programme was organised jointly by the Weaker Section, CID, Bihar Police, the Gender Resource Centre of Chanakya National Law University and UNFPA Bihar. It formed part of an ongoing initiative to promote gender-responsive policing and strengthen responses to adolescents who may be vulnerable because of their gender, age or social circumstances.
Inaugurating the workshop, DIG (Special Branch) Harpreet Kaur highlighted the changing risks confronting children in the digital age. She said children now navigate both the physical world and an increasingly complex digital environment, where online crimes and other threats affecting adolescents are evolving.
Kaur urged police personnel to adopt an approach that would make vulnerable children more willing to report harm and seek assistance. She called on the force to “replace silence with dialogue and stigma with empathy”, stressing the need for adolescents to feel safe enough to speak, seek help and be heard.
The focus on frontline policing is significant because the officers attending the workshop include units responsible for special crimes, trafficking, child welfare and vulnerable groups. Their roles place them at the point where complaints involving children must be received, assessed and connected to protection and investigative processes. The workshop addressed child protection, trafficking, gender-based violence and the vulnerabilities faced by adolescents.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Weaker Section) Shivendra Kumar Anubhavi, CNLU-GRC director Ayushi Dube and UNFPA Bihar state head Saadat Khwaja Noor were present at the programme. Their participation brought together police, legal and institutional stakeholders involved in strengthening responses to gender-related vulnerabilities.
Sessions were conducted by Anushree Mishra of Aangan Trust, CNLU faculty member Vijay Kumar Vimal, Allahabad High Court advocate Anchal Gupta and Seven Colors Welfare Trust co-founder Sunil Jha. The sessions dealt with child protection, trafficking, gender-based violence and adolescent vulnerabilities.
The programme places communication and institutional response at the centre of child protection. Its stated objective is to promote policing that is responsive to gender and sensitive to the circumstances of children, while helping personnel address risks that increasingly extend from streets and homes into digital spaces. Further implementation steps under the ongoing initiative were not detailed in the report.
