Sharma assures better treatment to the destitute

pune:police commissioner ranjit singh sharma assured representatives of several ngos on saturday that attempts would be made to change the attitude of the police towards destitute children. at a meeting of childline’s city advisory board sharma unambiguously accepted that the police force was not psychologically trained to deal with sensitive subjects like children with problems.sharma agreed with anuradha sahastrabuddhe, in-charge of dyandevi, the main collaborative agency for childline, who complained about the complete neglect of the police towards cases involving destitute children. when sahasrabuddhe pointed out that the police either remained silent spectators or created problems for volunteers rescuing minor girls from brothels, or providing shelter to the destitute, sharma said he will issue a circular to all police stations giving them a better idea of childline’s activities. he also agreed to arrange a meeting between the heads of all the 19 police stations in the city and ngos which are part of the childline project. s gulve, chairperson of the juvenile welfare board, sought sharma’s help in repatriating rehabilitated children to their hometowns. sharma said a shortage of staff meant he could only provide escort teams. sahasrabuddhe also sought the police department’s help to bust the racket that forces children to beg. the police chief said he would check if powers could be delegated to ngos to pick up the children begging on the streets and hand them over to the state remand home and to issue stern warnings to parents who ‘rented out’ their children to beg.