New Delhi. Child-friendly policing is the need of the hour as children are the most vulnerable lot in the society, said Raigarh Superintendent of Police (SP) and IPS officer Santosh Singh during an exclusive interview with Bureaucrats India.

“Children among us need the best of care and attention for a host of reasons. Those who come from the weaker sections of the society need more care and safeguard against exploitation and abuse by the unscrupulous elements,” he added.

Singh revealed that Chhattisgarh is going to have 100 child friend police stations, which will be a milestone in itself so far as the community policing is concerned. “Children are an important cog in community policing,” he said while sharing his insights.

It is worth mentioning that Singh received the ‘Champions of Change’ award by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, in December 2018 for ‘Child-friendly policing’ in Mahasamund.  He also set a world record for training the largest number of children – over one lakh – in self-defence in Mahasamund in 18 months.

“Training self-defence has a special focus on girls. It was an enabling exercise. Girls in particular were taught how to use, say, for example, dupatta and safety pin for their safety if they are attacked by anti-social elements,” said Sing, an alumnus of BHU and JNU, two important seats of learning.

Sharing his experience as a police officer while posted in Sukma, one of the most Naxal infested areas, Singh said: “It was a challenging assignment indeed. I am of the firm view that people want development and improvement in their ease of life. The state government is carrying out a lot of development works. Those engaged in armed struggle must shun violence and join democratic processes and become a party and catalyst for the people’s holistic development.”

In response to a question about his experience of policing during the coronavirus, the dynamic IPS officer of the 2011 batch said: “It was an unprecedented situation, indeed. Cops worked very hard. The Raigarh Police distributed 12.37 lakh masks with the people’s support on the day of Rakshabandhan under an awareness drive called – ‘Iss Rakshabandhan - Ek Rakshasutra Mask Kaa.’ This noble drive also got registered as a world record in its unique category.” 

He admitted the fact that people saw entirely a different, positive side of cops during Covid-19 lockdown as they did exceedingly well in mitigating people’s woes in distress in more ways than one. “However, there is no scope for any complacency at all. We need to continue with our good works, behaviour and approach towards people to add more value to the good image during the coronavirus crisis,” he said. /BI/