Hyderabad: Unless women become economically independent, merely raising the number of female police personnel will not help the cause of women empowerment, Telangana Director General of Police Anurag Sharma said here on Sunday.

The DGP was speaking at an event organised by Telangana CID and Hyderabad Police's 'SHE Teams' to raise awareness on legal rights and self-defence techniques for women at Necklace Road here. "There can be no real empowerment of women only by providing more number of women police stations and by posting more number of women in police stations and at help desks in the police station, unless they become economically independent. Only when they achieve economic independence, they will become empowered," Sharma said. The Telangana police chief said the State Government has provided 33 per cent reservation for women in the police department.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy said as many as 100 'SHE Teams', which keep an eye on eve-teasers, are operating in Hyderabad city. The offenders, apart from being booked are also counselled and their parents and other family members informed about them, he said. The officers of SHE Team, who are in civil dress, are deployed near colleges and other public places.
"We are providing one lakh CCTV cameras in each lane in every colony, and all the cameras will be linked to the command and control centre in the police commissionerate. Thus, any incident at any place will be immediately identified and the culprits tracked, Reddy said.

Tollywood actor Ram Charan Tej, who participated in the event, said there should be a change in the attitude of men towards women. SHE Teams' songs CD and their website were also inaugurated by the DGP. Over 3,000 girls from different colleges, NGOs and others participated in the event.