Here’s How DPO Sonia Shamroz is Lowering Chitral’s Suicide Rates

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are honouring the influential and strong women of Pakistan who are making our societies safe and ideal to live in for everyone, especially women. Herein, we are honouring none other than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first woman District Police Officer (DPO), Sonia Shamroz, who recently joined the Chitral police and is working on alleviating Chitral’s suicide rates.

Sonia Shamroz’s first assignment was as the police’s assistant superintendent in Mansehra, which was a huge learning opportunity for her. “Initially people would be confused and sceptical to see a woman in the police but my efforts and work gave them confidence in me. In Mansehra, I visited crime scenes and we caught criminals, which really changed the way the public perceived women police officials.”

Coming from a family that made sure nothing was unachievable for Shamroz and her four sisters, this encouragement led Sonia Shamroz to give the CSS exam and undergoing training for her position in the male-dominated law enforcement agency. While this speaks volumes about Shamroz’s determination and her family’s support, it also sheds light on the numerous challenges she must have faced during her journey so far.

According to Sonia Shamroz, Chitral faces two major issues: the first is a high suicide rate with the majority of the victims being females. In her opinion, the women of Chitral feel suppressed, and face a lack of opportunities and have no one to vent and complain to. Therein, many young girls die by suicide especially when they are forced to marry someone against their will/ consent or are being subjected to domestic violence. Instead of seeking a solution, they die by suicide due to the lack of resources. The second issue is the prevalence of ‘down district marriages’, in which men from lower districts and other provinces come to North Chitral and marry younger girls, often by paying off their parents.

To overcome these prevailing issues, Sonia Shamroz has operationalised three gender-responsive desks (GRDs) at the model police stations established by the UNDP’s Amn-o-Insaf Programme with support from European Union in Lower Chitral. She has also ensured to appoint female officers at these desks and have personally trained these officers on gender-responsive policing so as to change the environment of police stations and encourage women to freely visit and report violations. Since the inauguration of these desks in January of 2021, over 100 cases have been successfully resolved.

“It has only been two months of making these efforts and there has only been one case of suicide. My team has successfully saved a few cases from the site when some women were trying to jump in the river, counselled them and resolved the issue,” Sonia Shamroz said.

While talking on the prevailing issues, Sonia Shamroz highlighted that another reason for these recurring problems is the lack of senior female officials in law enforcement.

“Currently, we don’t have enough women in the force to cater to women complainants and hear them out, let alone work towards solving their cases and challenges,” explained Sonia Shamroz.

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