Patna: A senior policeman in India’s Bihar state has set an example by starting a free school for poor children from the slums.
The free school has been set up in the building of a government primary school at Hajipur in Vaishali district.
Around 100 children are currently enrolled in the school, which has been running since June 2016.
What is special about this free school is that the police official takes classes in his uniform.
But why in uniform, and not civilian clothes?
“Watching a policeman in uniform sitting beside them and taking classes will not only drive out their deep-rooted fear for the cops but will also prevent children from indulging in anti-social acts in future,” police official Madhurendra Kumar told Gulf News over phone on Monday.
Kumar, who is brains behind the idea, is the station house officer at the Industrial Police Station, Hajipur in neighouring Vaishali district.
According to the police official, the initiative will ultimately help reform the society.
“Poor children from slum areas normally tend towards anti-social acts, such as gambling, stealing, pick-pocketing or idling away time if they have no assignments and opportunities. And, the very initiative will ultimately contain such types of diversions which means check in crime graph,” explained Kumar.
He said the number of policemen in Bihar was far short of requirements and such an initiative could indeed lessen pressure on the policemen in the end.
“So, the idea serves twin purposes. Educating children on the one hand and then enforcing discipline in their life on the other,” the official said, adding “a nation can’t grow until the next generation remains uneducated”.
The official got this idea from his previous posting in a Maoist-affected district.
“Maoists changed their outlook towards us and accepted us as their ‘well-wishers’ when we admitted their children to schools and provided free education materials for study. The result was there was a sharp decline in the Maoist violence in the district,” he revealed.
Although the police official is kept busy in his official assignments with the challenge to maintain law and order situation in the areas yet he spares one hour of duty every day to impart teaching to the children.
“I never miss to be on time and teach them all subjects from Grade One to Five,” the official said.
The free classes go for the entire week, from Monday to Friday. In case of his absence during the time of emergency, his subordinates or local college-going girls take classes. The free schooling has now become a biggest hit now.
This is the second time in past one decade that the police have gone all out to change their image in the society. Earlier in 2007, the police launched a massive drive across the state to admit to schools out-of-school children employed in roadside eateries, pushing handcarts or employed as child labours. Such was the impact of this drive that more than a million children were admitted to schools within a short span of time.