Bhopal Police is not only maintaining law and order in the city but also educating poor children for free. Police at the Bhopal’s Govindpura, Hanumanganj and Nishatpura police station are offering free of cost education to underprivileged vulnerable children in the slums and nearby localities, under a programme called ‘Bal Sanjeevani Paramarsh Kendra’, an initiative is the first one of its kind in the city.

Talking to The Logical Indian exclusively, a police official from the Govindpura police station who wanted to be anonymous revealed that every morning red beaconed police vehicle picked up kids from their home for lessons at the police station. They carry children to the police station where they are introduced to the Hindi and English alphabets by teachers dressed in khaki and blue uniform. Here police officials are dedicating their one or two hours daily apart from their regular duties under an initiative.

Image Credit: The Optimist Citizen

‘Bal Sanjeevani Paramarsh Kendra’

An initiative started by a top cop Mr. Raman Singh Sikarwar back in 2016. The police officials have started this humanitarian task to keep the vulnerable kids away from criminal and addictive activities, and teach them something more productive. Here Cops are teaching children voluntarily.

According to the Govindpura police station staff, they enrolled kids for the teaching at police station who cannot afford primary education due to their marginal background, kids begging on the roads, working as a child labourer, freely roaming around on the streets, staying in slum areas, selling newspapers on public places or kids with careless upbringing of their parents. These children are highly prone engaging into criminal activities and providing education can help them realise the positive side of their life.

Initially it was very difficult for the police officials to convince parents to send their kids to the station because of common notion about the police. But the kind of trust officials built over the time brought fruitful results.

He further revealed that children within age group 4-12 years are eligible to get enrolled in police station. They start their class in the morning 9 am and ended at 12 pm. Number of the children enrolled in Govindpura police station are 25 including girl studentds. Attendance of the kids is regular which is encouraging police officials to give their time to the kids. Officials in the police station are assigned to teach their favorite subjects. Black board is used to interact with children. Lady officials are taking the lead and their contributions in teaching are incredible. As staff of the police stations are providing stress free environment to the kids, they have shown their interest in learning.

Apart from Hindi and English alphabets, cops are teaching here basic fundamentals of the primary education. eg. Ginti (Numbers), Pahada (table), khadiyan (Compounds to make sentences). This is helping kids in improving their basic mathematics and reading-writing skills.

Funding:

Project is fully funded by Bhopal police and department is bearing cost of books, chairs, bags and other stationaries. They are also provides transportation facilities in picking and dropping kids to their home safely.

Continuous Education:

In the police stations, cops are providing only initial learning to the kids and they are being redirected to get enrolled in government schools to continue their further education.

Meeting with Parents:

Officials are having meeting regularly with parents to address their concerns. Officials are giving them some tips to make sure their kids are focused in their learning.

While the mass perceives a police station as a violent and fearful place, there are few police stations those are creating a crime-free, peaceful and positive future for underprivileged vulnerable children, through basic literacy.

The Logical Indian applauds a social initiative started by Bhopal police of making a crime-free future for the underprivileged vulnerable children.