BHOPAL: A police officer with a teacher's heart is touching hearts and minds in a remote village of MP's Panna district. Inspector Bakhat Singh, SHO of the local police station, has opened a library and is teaching the village's youngsters - from class 4 kids to
NDA and
UPSC aspirants.
Every morning, dozens of children make a beeline for Brajpur police station, about 40km from the district headquarters. And every morning from 7 to 10, before he gets into the hurly burly of policing, Singh turns into a teacher.
"I was posted here around eight months ago. After I saw the illiteracy and poverty in the village, I decided to start '
Vidyadan
', a school-cum-library at the police station," the SHO said.
He worked as a government teacher for five years - first from 2001 to 2004 and then in 2009 - before he became a cop. He was also elected as a sarpanch some years ago. "I was selected for the state forest service and as a DSP in
Chhattisgarh
but did not join," he said.
His heart was in Madhya Pradesh — and teaching. Students sit in a corridor of the police station, where he takes classes, clears doubts, imparts moral education and even prepares students for competitive exams. Two teachers from the village also help him out, Singh said.
Brajpur is a village of around 6,000 people, a large number of them from SC, ST and
OBC
communities who work as labourers in diamond and stone mines. Singh’s posting has come as a godsend.
Fourteen-year-old Raunaq Sahu, a regular at the village school and Singh’s class, said: “I want to become an Army officer and SHO sir is guiding me to crack the NDA exam. There is an amazing atmosphere here.”
“I get a lot of motivation here and have been taking guidance from the TI sir,” said 17-year-old IAS aspirant Adarsh Dixit. Simi Dhali, a class 10 student, said she gets her reading material from the library and clears her doubts with the police inspector.
Bakhat is concerned about the school’s future. “Mine is a transferable job. I hope my successor also takes an interest in the school,” he said.