Chhattisgarh has brought India glory on the international platform, with the state’s Balod police being conferred the IACP community policing award, also known as the “Oscar” in the field of community policing, in California. This is the first time in the history of these awards that India has won the first prize. The police from the state’s Balod district competed with police forces from New York, California and Beijing to earn the laurels. Before this, only two Indian police agencies were awarded consolation prizes in the competition. In 2012, Godavarikhani in Andhra Pradesh was given the honour. In 2014, the Visakhapatnam rural district police from Andhra Pradesh got a consolation prize.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a 123-year-old international organisation, chose the Balod police’s Navodaya project after going through 800 entries sent by 195 countries from across the globe. Navodaya won in the category of population above 2 lakh.
The sight of a bunch of self-defence trained, rope and lathi-wielding women in saris and special caps, patrolling the streets has become common in Balod district, thanks to Navodaya. And “Mission Poorna-Shakti” is just one part of the three-pronged Navodaya approach taken up by the Balod police under the leadership of the then SP Arif Shaikh to address the core problems facing the district. Balod has a population of around 2.5 lakh.
Thanks to the efforts of the entire police team of Balod and the enthusiasm of the community, crime rate has dwindled, so have road accidents. The convergence of NGOs, police, common persons, educational institutions and businesses has led to a synchronised pattern of district improvement. The police has also been able to catch gangs involved in online crimes.
“The IACP conferred the award to Balod Police for its excellent execution of e-Raksha, Purn Shakti and Jeevdaya under the ‘Navodaya’ campaign,” said Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh. The state government has already termed the “Poorna Shakti” mission for women’s development and empowerment as a model programme. The government plans to replicate the same model in all the districts of Chhattisgarh.
Arif Shaikh, IPS officer and former Superintendent of Police of Balod, who envisioned and implemented the scheme by building public and police support for consistent performance, said, “The best compliment came from a jury member. After I received the prize, he told me that they knew they were looking at the winner, the moment they started reading my entry.”
What is so unique about this community policing project? “See, most of the police initiatives do their assigned task and stop at that. If awareness is to be spread, they will conduct lectures, and then just move forward. What we did was, we kept engaging the community on a consistent basis. We took action on the basis of feedback received by them. This increased people’s confidence in the police, and they got more enrolled in the process. For example, under our e-Raksha scheme, we didn’t stop after creating awareness about cyber crimes. When people started approaching us, we arrested gangs on the basis of the public information. Same is the case with crimes against women. We didn’t just rescue girls, we also rehabilitated them. We established forward and backward linkages. We coordinated with various other government departments to bring about change. For example, during Jeev-Daya, we closely worked with the Public Works Department to reduce black spots which were accident-prone. This interlinked effort was the secret behind the success of the story,” he said.
The police from the state’s Balod district competed with police forces from New York, California and Beijing.
NAVODAYA
Navodaya is the umbrella name for a combination of three programmes implemented by the Balod police, starting 2015. These programmes are: Mission E-Raksha (E-Protection) for cyber-security awareness, Mission Jeev-Daya (life saviour) for providing medical aid to accident victims and road safety, and Mission Poorna-Shakti (holistic empowerment) for empowering rural women.
Under Mission E-Raksha, the police picked up volunteers to sensitise people about cyber crimes. These volunteers received training and hand holding by the police personnel. They were also provided material in simple local language so the IT jargon can be simplified and explained. An examination was conducted for these volunteers. Only those who secured over 50% marks became e-Rakshaks. After being selected, they were continuously trained and motivated through quizzes and seminars. The police staff was also constantly trained and monitored.
Over 400 e-Rakshaks, mainly college students, covered 704 villages to spread awareness among 0.7 million people. The impact was that people started dealing with fraud calls and provided real time information to police. This helped the police nab gangs involved in ATM fraud, tower installation fraud, Nigerian fraud, to name a few.
Under “Mission Jeev Daya”, accident-prone black spots were identified with the help of data. Dangerous spots were highlighted through fluorescent boards. Road engineering faults were corrected through PWD. Teams of volunteers around these spots were trained to provide emergency medical aid. Often, the victims would lose the battle as the ambulance arrived after the golden hour. The Jeev Daya committees chipped in here and helped reduce fatalities. First aid kits and other essential items were provided to them by the police. This led to a 20% decline in accidental deaths in the area.
While implementing “Mission Poorna Shakti”, the officers realised that teaching self-defence techniques to women through karate and martial arts was not useful. “These women wear saris. How will they be able to kick and punch freely in problem situations?” asked a police officer. So the self-defence training programmes were customised to suit the needs of the rural women. They were taught the usage of various day-to-day items for self-defence. These women commandos were also encouraged to patrol their neighbourhood in groups. This brought down anti-social behaviour and crimes.
“Till date, 8,000 women have been trained in the ‘ready-to-react self defence programme’,” Arif Shaikh said.