Rabta is Rozan's Police training program. It works to enhance Police-Community partnership and to bring about an attitudinal change in the police by addressing issues of self-growth, gender, and violence against women and children.

Background

The police is an important institution of the state that carries with it the difficult responsibilities of maintaining law and order and protecting the life, property, and honor of its citizens. Rozan believes that the police can play a vital role in bringing about a positive change in society.

With that in mind, both Rozan and the Police force have expressed the need for a positive change in the Police for their own, as well as the community's, benefit. In 1999, Dr. Ambreen Ahmed (Rozan's founding member and a psychiatrist), S.S.P Nasir Khan Durrani, and several senior instructors of the Police College Sihala met to discuss the possibilities of working together to bring about a positive attitudinal and behavioral change in the police force. After the meeting, Rozan offered its services to conduct two pilot workshops with police trainees. The result of these trainings was very encouraging both for Rozan and for the Police, after which Rozan was offered the opportunity to launch Rabta, Rozan's Police Training program.

Project Rationale

The development of positive attitudes and healthy behavior is useful in order to enhance the personal and professional lives of all people. However, this is even more critical for certain groups and institutions that work in high stress conditions and carry responsibilities that affect millions of lives. The Police is one such institution of the State. It requires the highest standards of socio-ethical conduct in its day-to-day operations. It is a need of both the police force and the larger society that more work be done to achieve this goal.

The efficiency, effectiveness and professionalism of the Police force is adversely affected by a range of stressful factors. The present day police woman/man is over-worked, underpaid, unappreciated by the community, feels alienated from his/her family and often has to work under conditions where his/her life is under threat. Moreover his/her training does not include exposure to vital issues that effect this relationship with the community e.g. violence against women and children, communication skills and stress management.

These attitudinal and behavioral limitations translate at one end of the spectrum to serious police abuse and a violation of human rights. The other end of the spectrum is the less extreme, but none the less damaging, often resulting in ineffectual police responses to crimes and a sense of insecurity and distrust in the general public. As a result, often the police force does not carry the respect and confidence of the very people and society whom it is meant to work for. This has a direct impact on the police's level of self-respect, self-confidence, collective self-esteem and efficiency, which in turn affects performance and, thus, the vicious cycle, goes on. Most people, including the police force itself agree that there is an urgent need to have policemen and women demonstrate more sensitive and positive attitudes.

Current Status

Rozan's Police Training Program has evolved over the years from doing exclusive work with the police to involving the community in its second phase and to extending its six-day training to a one-year mentoring process. In addition, through a formal agreement with National Police Academy (NPA), Rabta is also offering emotional health curricula to Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASsP) under training, stress management courses to the senior ranks of police, and also works for the institutionalization of Attitudinal Change Module in police training colleges, schools, and centers.

Rabta has provided trainings over 1,600 policemen and women so far. It has also worked with the Balochistan Police, the Sindh Police, the NWFP Police, the Punjab Police, and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).