In view of the spurt in incidents of violence against women in the capital, the Delhi government has started 'Project Raksha' to impart self-defence training to female physical education teachers.

The trainers would in turn impart training to girl students to make them conversant with self-defence techniques, Union Minister of State for Home S Reghupathy said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

He said the central government would be happy to share the details of the scheme taken up in Delhi with other states if they were interested in similar initiatives.

Reghupathy informed that the number of rape cases registered in the National Capital Region had increased from 718 in 2001 to 735 and 796 in the subsequent two years.

He also said that the home ministry had created 1,481 posts in various ranks of the Delhi police for the purpose of the separation of crime investigation from law and order functions.