In 2024, 200 police recruits at the Bihar Police Academy in India underwent an unorthodox form of training.
Instead of sitting through lectures, reading exhaustive manuals or even performing physical training exercises in an academy, these officers were dressing up in costumes and roleplaying more like a theater troupe. Despite the recreational nature of the setting, the training had been designed to address a serious issue: violence against women.Related: Uniformed police reduced public sexual harassment in India more than undercover officers, new research finds
By acting out everyday scenarios faced by women in India, and even donning headscarves worn by women, officers stepped into the shoes of a population that faces high levels of violence and police bias.
Could this kind of empathy-building training really be the key to change?
That was the question that Nishith Prakash, an economics and public policy professor at Northeastern University who led the project, had in mind when designing the unusual experiment, which was first implemented among around 3,000 police officers in Bihar in 2022. But he hadn’t expected it to prove as effective as it did. Officers who went through the program were more empathetic, less likely to blame victims and more likely to treat reports of violence against women seriously.
“The question always is, ‘If I teach you something, do you carry it forward?’” Prakash said. “Most training programs don’t work, so I’m very happy and surprised that it worked.”
