Communication gap: experts to train women cops

The police have planned to train its team of 40 women officers deployed at all five Metro stations, in language and diction skills. Leena Dhankhar reports.

The police have planned to train its team of 40 women officers deployed at all five Metro stations, in language and diction skills.

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As most of the women personnel come from rural Haryana, their Hindi dialect is different from the one spoken by citizens of Gurgaon. This creates a communication barrier.

The Gurgaon police are likely to rope in language experts, who train BPO executives, to help its women staff.

DCP (East) Maheshwar Dayal told HT, "This has become a problem. During crisis situations, we cannot afford language problems to hamper police action just because they cannot understand what the victim is trying to tell them. We are trying to hire language experts."

Gurgaon, moreover, has a vast migrant population and executives not used to the local Haryanvi dialect.

"If not for English, just refining their Hindi will help a great a deal. Getting rid of the Haryanvi dialect will not be very difficult, but will need practice," added Dayal.

Mudita Bhan, who was recently robbed at a city Metro station, said, "I found it difficult to understand the policeman's language and made it difficult for me to communicate. Training police personnel is urgently needed.”