UP's anti-Romeo squads get IIM training

Lucknow: Members of the Anti-Romeo Squads in UP police have recently undergone a course in anger-management, transaction analysis and emotional intelligence with the management gurus in the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow.

The training was given following large scale complaints of rough and aggressive behaviour by the Anti-Romeo Squads. IIM-L faculty members, along with leading psychotherapists of the state, have helped the female and male constables of the squads in better behavior management.

While the management gurus gave lessons in gender sensitisation, body language and micro expressions, psychotherapists focused on alternative approaches for anger management with meditation techniques.

Prof. Himanshu Rai, who led the training programme, said, “Self-leadership communication techniques had to be deployed to deal with the cops here. Focus was on communicating with the patriarchal world, where we question the women more than we do the perpetrator. We would tell the police personnel to take assertive leadership but not without being empathetic in the situation.”

A popular clinical research, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was heavily lectured on with the male cops, who expressed difficulty in resisting physical force with stalkers.

They were convinced not to use force by asking the men for sit-ups, pulling their ears, blackening faces and shaving heads. Dr Neha Anand, a psychotherapist, said that the cops were taught how to deal with egos of people along with non-verbal cues which includes eye accessing cues, gestures and facial expressions as these cases deal with the physical appearances of a stalker or a lover.

The female police personnel, in particular, were given lessons on regulating emotions.