New Delhi: Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Shashi Bala has counselled several women—survivors of rapes and marital disputes—over the years. She remembers the details of each of these women and their respective cases, some of which even date back to the early 2000s.
Bala carries the pain of all these women in her heart. She says that counselling and comforting survivors lies at the core of policing, especially when dealing with women and children.
Learning self-defence strategies is important for girls and women, according to her. “Girls should be taught self-defence techniques at very early stages. It helps build confidence and also enables them to tackle situations better. It is a life skill for women, especially in a society that is so biased against them,” she says.
A police personnel trained in counselling at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia, Bala spent most of her career in the Crime Against Women unit of district police and at the Delhi Police headquarters. She has also served as a special executive magistrate and trained over 30,000 school students in self-defence techniques.
The 60-year-old, who is a cancer survivor, retired in July this year and was conferred the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service last month on Independence Day. In 2018, she was awarded the police medal for exemplary service.
Recalling the many cases of women being tortured and thrashed by their husbands, Bala says, “Married women hardly have any support from their maternal families, relatives or in-laws. They have no one to hear them out, let alone find solutions for them. They come to the police, but again, don’t want to lodge a case against their abusers due to the fear of being left alone or the security of their children’s future.”
In one such case, she recalls, a woman living with her husband in a jhuggi (slum) was sexually abused by him repeatedly for several years.
“She didn’t want to file a case against him even after we counselled her multiple times. So then, I called her children and explained to them what their mother had been going through. I asked them to sleep with her, not leave her alone and confront their father. I also counselled the father. The situation is better now, if not completely normal,” Bala says.
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‘A hardworking officer’
Throughout her career, senior police officers recognised Bala as a “dedicated” and “hardworking” officer, who never let go of her cases and victims.
“Even when a victim did not want to file a case, Bala was equipped in finding solutions to make her life better. In many cases of matrimonial disputes and domestic violence, women don’t want to lodge an official police complainant. These are tricky situations, but Bala always dealt with them well, and offered both counselling and support to those women,” a senior Delhi Police officer said.
A year before her retirement, Bala was transferred to the 7th battalion of the Delhi Police. “I had suffered a severe shoulder injury and was undergoing treatment for cancer as well. I was taking it slow,” she says.
The retired ACP, who started her career as a young 21-year-old police constable in 1985 posted in the Parliament Street police station, appeared for competitive exams and got selected as a sub-inspector in 1988. It was during her stint as an inspector that she investigated several cases of matrimonial disputes, and sexual assault against women and minors.
Bala, a mother of two, hails from Delhi’s Chattarpur village, where in the 1960s, when she was born, women did not go to college.
“My parents wanted me to be a teacher. At that time, we went to college on weekends. I knew one thing since I was a child… that I had to be financially independent. I ended up clearing the competitive exams and joined as a constable. After joining the services, I completed my graduation,” she recounts.
After Bala joined the police force, her younger brother also appeared for competitive exams and is currently posted as an Assistant commissioner of Police with the Sashastra Seema Bal.
“It was tough. A lot of sacrifices had to be made. Right after marriage, everyone expects the woman to spend more time at home, but I didn’t have the time. I told my children, especially my daughter, about my work so that she is aware of the crimes which take place against women,” Bala says.
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