A fun day with Kerala cops

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “So, how many of you want to become police officers?’’ More than half of the youngsters shot their hands up when Assistant Commissioner of Police (Fort), J K Dinil, put the question to them on Monday. “There has been an increase in crime, especially against women. I want to join the police to stop that,’’ said a girl to the ACP.

Nearly a 100 children belonging to classes VI to XII visited the Fort Police station as part of the programme ‘A day with the police’ organised by the NGO Childline for its summer camp participants. The Fort police station, being Kerala’s first child friendly station, has a separate block for children, with a dedicated play-park outside.

The station has a special ‘child welfare police officer’ (CWPO) who has received training to appropriately deal with children who are either victims or perpetrators of crime.

The whole station, decorated with children’s cartoons and painted in bright colours, has the appearance of a nursery school.  The children visiting the police station, belong to Karimadom colony and are participants of the summer camp called ‘Dreams-2018,’ which is the 25th camp organized by the Don Bosco Veedu Society which runs Childline. The NGO has been operating in Karimadom colony for the past 25 years to improve the quality of life of the children living there.

“According to the statistics from the Social Justice Department, Karimadom has the highest number of juveniles committing repetitious crime in the last two years. So it becomes necessary to give this place special attention”, says Childline director Fr Thomas P D.  

“The social situation of the children of Karimadam colony is very poor. With most parents being single, and employed as daily wage earning workers, the economic situation is not favourable for the children to pursue a standard life. It forces them to get into crime”, says Tony James, the coordinator of the camp.
Childline has intervened several times in ‘Chala Bazaar’ market, which is notorious for employing socially-disadvantaged children of Karimadom colony. Social reintegration of rescued children is also being undertaken by the NGO.

“After identifying children who are in need of our help, we expose them to many opportunities and guide them to achieve their ambitions,’’ Fr Thomas said. The valedictory ceremony of the summer camp, complete with cultural programmes by the children will be held in the Karimadom colony on May 3.
“This summer camp is very exciting. We play a lot of games and visit many places. Last week, we visited the satellite launching station in Thumba and spoke to scientists”, says Sayed Ali, who is taking part in the camp for the second time.