Delhi Police and British Transit Police Work to Address Sexual Harassment

Making public spaces safer takes a multi-pronged approach. Local and national governments must be partners in these efforts, and slowly, more of them are, including through the police force. These are two examples of what efforts are being undertaken at the local and national level.

Local:

In Delhi, India, police are working to deter and stop sexual harassment and assault in public places through 30 Shishtachar squads. There are 11 core personnel per squad that include four women police officers who wear plain clothes and go about in the community. Once a man starts making inappropriate remarks, following her or worse, the team detains him. In 2026, they have detained 40,015 people, making it a total of over 100,000 people since the campaign began in 2025.

The Hindu reported: “The operations are based on a combination of tip-offs, ground intelligence, direct observation and patterns emerging from previous complaints, said one of the officials said. In most cases, men are taken to the local police station and a Daily Diary or General Diary entry is made. They are then counselled in the presence of their families and let off after a warning. Serious cases of sexual harassment or molestation result in FIRs and further investigation, said the official.”

Hopefully as these squads continue their work, more people will think twice about harassing someone for fear of the possible consequences and social shaming.

National:

After the national Public Sexual Harassment Act went into effect a few months ago across the UK, there have been various new efforts to tackle street harassment. One of them is a new campaign and coordinated effort from the British Transit Police. They launched posters, digital display and station messages across the rail network to raise awareness about sexual harassment and encourage people to report incidents from rail staff, online or via text message. These are examples of posters:

An aspect that is unique to this campaign is the national Safer Railway Scheme. This creates “formal safety expectations for train operators around preventing harassment, supporting victims and training staff to respond appropriately,” as reported on Insight Safer Highways.

All rail operators will be “independently assessed by British Transport Police against a series of standards covering areas such as victim support, safeguarding, staff training, crime prevention and passenger protection. Operators will need to achieve minimum accreditation standards in order to meet the scheme’s requirements.”

Through these efforts, they hope to create an environment where riders know that harassment is not acceptable and also where riders are equipped with the knowledge they need to respond to harassment if they do witness or experience it.

It’s too early to know how effective the campaign will be, but hopefully if the BTP and rail operators take it seriously and implement it well, it can make a big difference.