Lessons from gender-sensitive police reform in India: A Q&A with Sandip Sukhtankar on his new paper in Science

J-PAL affiliate Sandip Sukhtankar published a new study in Science in July 2022 on the impacts of gender-sensitive police reform in Madhya Pradesh, India, supported with funding from J-PAL's Crime and Violence Initiative and Innovation in Government Initiative.

In these short videos, Sandip shares with us how the initial partnership was developed, key results and policy implications, and plans for scale-up and further study. 

Q: Why is gender-sensitive policing important in India? 

Q: How did you come up with the idea to evaluate women's help desks in local police stations?

How did the partnership with the Madhya Pradesh Police come about? 

What potential solutions was the study designed to test? 

What did you and your coauthors learn about the effectiveness of these interventions?

From your perspective, what are the implications of these findings for policy makers seeking to improve women's access to justice in India?

How have these results informed decision-making within the Madhya Pradesh Police? Have you considered scaling up the intervention?

Many thanks to Sandip for taking the time to speak with us, and to his coauthors, Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner and Akshay Mangla.

For more information about the study, check out our evaluation summary and read the full paper over at Science.