Mumbai:
For over two weeks now, 43 women constables and officers have been training hard at a hillock inside Mumbai's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, getting ready to join a new, all-woman commando force that will protect women from sexual harassment.
It's dawn and still dark as these women follow the light of a police jeep to jog through deserted alleys. As one woman appears to run out of breath and slow down, a male voice booms.
"
Madam basu naka, chala thoada aankhin dam lava (Don't sit down madam; push yourself a bit more)," says Inspector Phoolsingh Pawar, the trainer. The woman responds: "Sir, I am trying, I will run."
Mr Pawar has 45 days to turn this disparate batch into a lethal force than can protect Mumbai's women in any situation.
An athlete himself, Mr Pawar was initially dismissive of the idea to have women commandos. "These women have proved me wrong," he confesses. "I have trained male commandos in the past, but training young policewomen to be commandos is a challenge. I am sure we will be successful."
"Women police officers were treated badly during the mob violence at Azad Maidan last year. We started this programme to make them stronger, mentally and physically," Mr Pawar says.
Training for this first-of-its-kind force in the country begins every dawn with a 5-km run. Then some non-combat training and martial arts. Every passing week gets more intense.
The grueling schedule does not daunt 26-year- old Anjali Sonawane. This Mumbai police inspector's day begins at 4 every morning and ends only by midnight after she has trained and finished her ground duties.
"If not in uniform, even policewomen are harassed. What we are learning here will help deal with such situations," she says.
For many, the training has pulled them out of their comfort zones and pushed them to reinvent themselves for the changing nature of policing in Mumbai. "It has been 16 years since I was first trained. This new training makes me feel fitter," says one officer.
The women commandos will be tasked with making public places, such as malls and movie theatres, safer for women.
Additional Commissioner of Police Qaiser Khalid, whose idea this is, says: "The officers are being trained to handle molestation and harassment of women on the streets and bring hooligans to law. We need our policewomen to be agile mentally and physically. This training will continue."