Cops turn teachers to protect adolescence

JAIPUR: Fifteen-year-old Babli (name changed), a resident of a tribal area in southern Rajasthan's Dungarpur district, was being raped by her father for the past two years. The deeply troubled and agonized tribal girl would have kept bearing the pain of it in silence, had it not being for the policeman who visited her school for counselling students on sexual abuse.

Thanks to the policeman, Babli gained courage and came forward to register a case against her father, who is now behind bars.

All this happened due to a unique initiative launched by the Dungarpur police. Under the School Safety and Adolescence Empowerment Programme, which is now being funded by the

UNICEF

, 376 police constables have adopted the role of teachers in 376 government and private schools in the district. Dungarpur superintendent of police (SP) Anil Jain said, “There are 376 police beats in the district, each headed by a constable. Under the school safety programme, we have assigned one school to each beat constable. They are tasked with taking a class on sexual abuse and other such social malice, once every month. The aim is to spread awareness among the students.“

“With this initiative, children are learning about the difference between 'safe' and 'unsafe' touch, sexual abuse and also exploitation in the classrooms,“ he said. “We have been running this programme in the schools since May, last year. In this tribal belt, sexual abuse with children is quite rampant and this programme has made a big difference.“

Sanjhu Binujeeth, a child protection consultant with UNICEF in Udaipur, said, “Babli knew what her father was doing to her was wrong, but she did not know what to do about it. This programme literally saved her life.“

Binujeeth further told TOI that some children discuss about 'suspicious activities' of their relatives also. “A girl told us that his cousin once touched her and she did not feel good about it. We had no evidence, so we went to his father and told him. He was shocked. We followed up on the case and have been told that the child is now being kept away from the cousin,“ she said.

“This type of programme should be implicated across the state. It can save lives of hundreds of children.“

The School Safety and Adolescence Empowerment Programme is an initiative of SP Anil Jain. Besides, UNICEF is running a program on reducing the rate of child migration from Dungarpur, with the help from district police and administration. These children are sent to nearby states for child labour.
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