Source – hindustantimes.com
In an effort to fight incidents like child marriage, female foeticide or even liquor vending, the government has introduced a student police cadet (SPC) project in all the government schools across the state, under which a group of girls and boys from every school are being groomed to evolve as future leaders.
The students are being explained how to respect the laws, maintain discipline and civic sense and how to stop social evils like child marriages, female foeticide, liquor vending, domestic violence and teasing. They are also being familiarised with the way the police function and are being taught how to act like a common link between the police and the community.
It’s an education department project which is being implemented by the Bihar Education Project (BEP) Council, a part of the state education department, responsible to bring quantitative and qualitative improvement in elementary education system in the state and to improve education standards in elementary schools.
Altogether 1,100 government schools of the state have been covered under the project and in every school, 22 girls and 22 boys have been selected for the project.
In Patna district, altogether 1,760 girls and boys from 40 government schools have been selected to become the SPCs.
“The numbers of schools under the project vary in different districts. In Patna, 40 schools have been identified and they are being trained to work as SPCs. During the training sessions, which take place on Saturdays, the students are being explained how to prepare a plan of action to stop certain social evils and coordinate with the police and the community to succeed in their mission,” Neeraj Kumar, district education officer, Patna district, said.
There are certain issues which cannot be solved only by police’s interference.” You need people to intervene and stop the evil. The most common issue these days is child marriage and female foeticide,” he said.
Another very common problem these days is liquor vending.
Many teenagers had been found in liquor vending network. The SPC’s intervention may prove to be very affective in this direction also, he added.
Rajesh Thakur, an official from BEP, Patna, said the cadets would be provided caps with the logo of the SPC and a whistle. “And in every school there will be a nodal teacher to head the group of cadets of that school. The nodal teacher has been imparted training by a master trainer of that district to handle cases, while the district level master trainers have been imparted training by the BEP at a workshop recently held in the state capital,” he said.
The training programme in district is almost over and the cadets will now be taken to police stations and camps in their localities to learn how police respond and take actions in different cases, he added.
“The cadets will be in regular touch with their nodal teachers and the local cops. In fact, this project of student police cadet is intended to bridge the gap between the police and common people. In many cases, people do not approach the police because of various reasons. This has to be changed,” he said.