A virtual women's police station in Pakistan's Punjab province has increased reporting of gender-based violence.
Some 28 percent of women in Pakistan aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence, yet 55 percent of these victims never seek help, according to the United Nations Population Fund. This lack of reporting is driven by social-cultural barriers, economic dependency and limited access to information, healthcare and psychosocial support.
But a new virtual women’s police station in the country’s Punjab region is showing encouraging early results in the form of a notable uptick in digitally submitted gender-based violence reports, according to a new analysis by Notre Dame political scientist and Kellogg faculty fellow Saad Gulzar. By providing data-driven evidence, Gulzar’s analysis enables authorities to refine their standard operating procedures, subsequently reducing reporting costs and preventing future violence.
The analysis finds that since the Punjab Safe Cities Authority opened its women’s virtual police station in 2024, there has been an increase of about 23 additional domestic violence reports per month for each field office through the new virtual police station’s helpline, with only a slight decline in the number of physical walk-in reports.
“This trend shows that the digital interface is successfully reaching women who may not have sought help from the state without the virtual police station,” said Gulzar, associate professor of political science and global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs and the College of Arts and Letters. “The increased rate of reporting is itself a big finding — it’s an outcome that is very hard to move.”
Women can initiate the reporting process through multiple platforms, including an emergency hotline, an app that features live chat and video calls, and the organization’s web portal.
"Before the virtual station, there was a vacuum in how we addressed crimes against women,” said Muhammad Ahsan Younas, managing director of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority. “Some people initially thought this platform was just a gimmick, but the reality is that the psychological and societal barriers to walking into a physical police station are immense. By providing a digital interface, we have removed that friction.”
The virtual model emerged after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Punjab’s first elected female head of provincial government, directed that women police stations be established in every district of the Punjab. In response, a proposal of a virtual platform was presented to enable women across Punjab, regardless of location, to access justice services without the constraints of physical infrastructure.
“Sustained follow-up by the chief minister and policy support have played a critical role in strengthening the station’s performance and accountability mechanisms,” Younas said.
The virtual police station is now seeing a sizable increase in reporting — averaging 2,200 calls daily — because it provides a safe, anonymous and convenient way for women to reach out for help from the privacy of their own homes, Younas said.
While the Punjab region is geographically the size of Nebraska, its population of 128 million people is larger than the three most populous U.S. states – California, Texas and Florida – combined.
“Such a large population presents a massive challenge where traditional police stations have often struggled to deliver results for women,” Younas said. “We realized that while we already had the technology and expertise in place, there was a vacuum in our services. This region was the ideal place to prove that a virtual platform could bridge that gap, connecting women across a vast geography with immediate support.”
From reporting to formal legal action
A critical measure of the program’s success is whether violence reports lead to formal police action, Gulzar and Younas said. Gulzar’s analysis showed a measurable increase in the number of gender-based violence cases progressing to a “first information report” — documentation prepared by police organizations that serves as an essential first step in a criminal investigation.
“The virtual women’s police station is not just a call center but also a gateway to the formal justice system,” Younas said. “We are able to track cases from the initial report all the way through the legal process, ensuring that field offices are held accountable and that every complaint is treated with the seriousness it deserves.”
Gulzar is currently analyzing more outcomes from the virtual police station for a working paper that will be released at a later date, but he said that the research also is aimed toward a broader goal of rethinking the role of government in society.
“This work is about more than just procedural improvements; it's about shifting the orientation of government agencies to center on the citizens they serve,” he said. “By reducing barriers to access for vulnerable populations and making the citizen the most important link in the chain, we hope to show how technology and feedback loops enable the public sector to perform better and build greater trust.”