Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 22: The commissionerate police’s initiative to help women approach the police has not had many takers. Month’s after the Instant Complaint Logging Internet Kiosk (iClik) was installed here for women, a senior police officer said it has hardly been used to register complaints.
The installation of the kiosk has not served any purpose, the police officer said.
Some observers have pointed the finger at technology. “The kiosk is a bit complicated to use. Most of the women who are not familiar with technology hesitate to use the kiosk to register complaints,” said a police source.
“No one” comes to register complaints, said the guard manning the kiosk.
The ATM-type machine that is located in the heart of the city was installed last year to help women anonymously report crimes such as domestic violence, dowry abuse and rape as they would not need to visit a police station for this.
The kiosk, which is located next to a bank ATM, began operating in December.
The iClik kiosk is the brainchild of Joydeep Nayak, the head of Orissa police’s human rights unit. Nayak came up with the idea after the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old woman aboard a Delhi bus in December 2012.
“The case was actually the genesis for the whole thing. In India you will hardly find a woman going to the police station. If you have to empower the women (to report crimes), iClik is the solution,” Nayak had earlier said.
The prototype machine that has been jointly developed by the Orissa police and the state-run Computer Application Centre, has an inbuilt microphone, scanner, camera and printer. It operates 24 hours a day and has options for registering complaints in English, Hindi and Oriya.
There are three ways to lodge a complaint at the iClik. The complainant could send an email, record a voice message or scan a written complaint.
