Instructors
NIDHI – She holds an MA degree in Hindi, together with a B.Ed. degree and psychology as one of her subjects. She has been with this institution at Madhuban right since its inception (30-4-07). Before joining here she had taught children in different institutions for about two years. She has a natural love for children and the children of Pehal fully reciprocate her feelings.
KAJAL – She is Matric pass. She had four years of experience in teaching mentally challenged students at an institution in Karnal. She joined Gharaunda branch of Pehal on 24. 9.07. She’s innovative, loves children and takes care of them and the children reciprocate to her in good measure.
KIRAN – She’s tenth class pass and has done a six-month course of training on mentally challenged children. She joined Pehal School at Kaimla on 15.10.07. She had three years experience of teaching mentally challenged children before joining Pehal. She is also a successful teacher in this institution and is very attached to the children.
PUJA – She’s a student and has passed 12th class examination. She has taught in a children’s school for some time. She has been associated with Pehal at village Nagla Megha since 25th September 2007. She puts in lots of effort to do her best and is very popular with her students. Many normal children also started coming to her class, and a separate section had to be created for them where another teacher teaches them.
Samvedi Police
Vikas Narain Rai, Director Haryana Police Academy
Samvedi police is the way to complete the journey from colonial policing to democratic policing. Among the colonial legacies inherited by our polity on gaining independence, the retrograde police traditions must rank, alongside public corruption & cast-communal segmentation, as the foremost de-stabling factor in the making of a healthy democratic Indian nation. In the perception of a common citizen of India, the police is Insensitive, Partisan and Corrupt.
A professional police would need infrastructure, legal & investigative expertise and technological support to excel on the desired Law & Order parameters. But that is not sufficient in public eyes. Public is extremely critical of the environment which goes with the policing in this country. The irony is that an average police person equally suffers on account of this situation due to resultant mistrust and fear-psychosis among people.
Thus, it is not just the learning of the skill that is crucial in any police training, but the conditioning of the mind-set of an average police-person which plays even greater role. ‘Sensitised Police for Empowered Society’ is the watchword adopted by Haryana Police Academy to define it’s training philosophy. ‘Sensitised’ means ‘Conditioned’. A sensitised
police would be a police absolutely conditioned to three aspects –
(a) Democratic & Constitutional values;
(b) Legal & Rights-based procedures;
(c) Community participation in day to day policing.
‘Empowered’ means ‘Self-confident’. Consequently, we believe, only an empowered society shall pave way for good policing. And hence police has a stake in being a catalyst to the process of social awareness and legal empowerment. Haryana Police Academy has introduced in it’s curriculum aspects of cultural forms and social interface in order to inculcate democratic values and constitutional pride in the trainees. The old image of colonial police must yield to a people sensitive profile. The stereo-type behaviour pattern of police may be traced to three factors:
- Prejudices carried by the entrants into the police life – Of Caste, Communalism, Class, Gender, Regionalism; Linguistic barriers and Parochial hues.
- Burden imposed by the department –
- Authoritarian (in contrast to participative)
- Ceremonial (in contrast to managerial)
- Physical (in contrast to scientific)
- Regimental (in contrast to people sensitive)
- Officious (In contrast to community oriented)
- Conditioning gained from the Societal Interface –
- Instability of tenure
- Insecurity of job-profile
- Interference of influential quarters
- Insensitivity of provider segments
- Inordinate laws & procedures.
A large part of it forms the Samvedi (Sensitised) Police orbit. There are no short-cuts to these revolutions:
- People-sensitive conduct
- Respect for society and law
- Balanced understanding of heritage and culture
- Ethics & integrity in professional life
- Value based individual profile and family & social life
- Integrating community participation
- Pride in service profile as well as in organizational goals
- On Sensitised Police for Empowered Society road to democratization.
Consequently a matching training strategy would be:
- Sensitization of the new entrants as also the serving members in regards to above aspects, together with elimination of biases and prejudices from their working profile. (Achievable through questionnaires, workshops, cultural forms, active interface with disadvantaged sections.)
- Incorporation of functional alternatives in day-to-day working & culture of the police department. (Achievable through democratisation internally, community involvement externally, forensic orientation, technosavy base, manpower augmentation to empower disadvantaged sections.)
- Infrastructural & Systemic support to police ethics. (Achievable through change in perception all around by opening up police systems, diversion of resources to meet community perception, broadening the technology base.)
The platforms used in Haryana Police Academy are:
- Cultural forms – Literature (Including biographies), Drama, Film, Dance, Music, Singing, Diary-writing etc. to inculcate humanistic world view.
- Questionaires, Discussions, Capsules on parochial/gender/castecommunal biases and rights-based approach with regards to socio-legal spectrum.
- Communication exercises and Role model exercises (followed by enactments) in multi-media environment to facilitate healthy Police-Public interface.
- Exposure to community aspects: old age homes, autistic institutions, blind schools, centers for physically handicapped, adoption of villages & slums, juvenile homes, women homes, de-addiction centers, places of spiritual learning, chetana schools for uneducated lot, Pehal schools for mentally challenged ones, caring the sick, red-cross activities, school spectrum, traffic platforms, sports centers, libraries & film clubs, empowerment avenues for women & weaker sections, legal literacy campaigns etc.
- Visits to heritage sites/cultural institutions: For appreciating unity as well as diversity of Indian nation and sharing the universal human bondage.
- Last but not the least – Healthy, clean and democratic life profile.
–Vikas Narain Rai, Director Haryana Police Academy