Assam Police to Don Child-Friendly Uniform When Handling Cases Related to Minors

Guwahati: Back in 2013, when Guwahati-based child rights activist Miguel Das Queah was aiding a six-year-old sexual abuse victim to record her statement before a police officer, she clamped up, seeing the officer in khaki.

Queah then offered his jacket to him, and told the child that the police officer wearing the jacket was a special child-friendly official who was there to help her.

“She then responded properly, and an idea was born. We thought, why not think up a programme or a mechanism within the Assam Police itself which is not only child-friendly but also seen to be so by the victim,” recalled Queah.

Queah said he ran from pillar to post to implement the idea of a police officer wearing a light blue jacket to appear child-friendly while dealing with child abuse cases, child rights issues, during medical examinations in such cases or even during general interaction with children so that they respond positively.

His idea eventually got wings with the help and support of the UNICEF and Assam Police additional director general Harmeet Singh in-charge of administration, security and modernisation of the force. Singh took the lead and formulated components for child-sector policing besides the child-friendly jacket idea. These added components have now led to the Assam Police Sishu Mitra programme, a joint venture between Assam Police, UNICEF and Queah’s organisation, UTSAH.

Six years after Queah first thought of the idea, the programme was officially implemented on August 22. State chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched it at a function in Guwahati, making it not just a one of a kind initiative by a police force in the Northeast but across the country at such an organised scale.

CM Shri @sarbanandsonwal launched the 'Assam Police Sishu Mitra' programme by unveiling Child Friendly Police Jackets in Guwahati.

The collaborative initiative of @assampolice, @UNICEFIndia
& @utsahassamOrg, the programme focusses on bridging gaps between police and children. pic.twitter.com/K4Nd4741WM

— Chief Minister Assam (@CMOfficeAssam) August 22, 2019

As many as 300 light blue jackets with ‘Child-Friendly Police Officer’ written both in English and Assamese will be made available across 200 police stations in Guwahati city for the officers to wear while dealing with minors. Queah said the programme has been launched as a pilot project in the Guwahati City Police Commiserate and UNICEF is expected to replicate it in other parts of the state and also across India in coming times.

He said, “I had approached many people to implement this idea but it was never fruitful. Finally, both UNICEF and Mr Singh came forward. The colour blue is a symbol of trust and friendship. Both the Juvenile Justice Act and the POCSO Act disallows a police person to be in uniform while in contact with children."

"However, these provisions are hardly complied with due to time constraints. But children often identify khaki with fear. Since police respond to the uniform rules, that they would don it also as uniform would hopefully also reinforce the idea of child-friendly behaviour,” said Queah.

Aside from the uniform, the one-year-long Mitra programme includes achieving targets like beautification of child corners across all police stations in Assam, technical training in child rights and soft skills for officers-in-charge (OCs) and child welfare police officers working with children, promotion of child rights issues on social media and offering counselling to police officers to adopt child-friendly behaviour.

"Protecting children is one of the most important tasks the government has to ensure and the police will have to perform in this regard. The child-friendly jacket is the beginning of our long-term commitment to children. We will work on several aspects of child-friendly policing in conjunction with Project MOITRI (a scheme to make police stations appear citizen-friendly) of the government of Assam, not only in terms of creating child-friendly infrastructure but also in terms of developing the skills and attitudes of police officers, working with children,” Singh told this correspondent.

The chief minister, during the launch of the programme, said, “This jacket has been made to ensure that children are protected from the idea of fear associated with the police. The jacket can be the reason for belief for a child, the reason for aspiration and the reason for protection for children. The colour of this jacket will help in bringing about a positive impact on the minds of children, will make them happy. And it is only in this context that a police officer should interact with children. However, along with the jacket, the behaviour and style of communication should also be friendly.”

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 3,964 crimes committed against children in Assam in 2016. As many as 35 of them were murder cases, 1,519 were of procuration of minor girls, 32 cases were of trafficking, 31 were of selling of minor girls for prostitution, 821 sexual abuse cases and 436 cases of juveniles in conflict with the law. From 2017 to January 2019, there were 245 child sexual abuse cases recorded in Guwahati itself.

Speaking at the launch, Yasmin Ali Haque, country representative, UNICEF, pointed out, “The role of the police is not restricted to gathering evidence in investigations. Having child-friendly police forces will go a long way towards establishing procedures as prescribed by the law. This requires an additional skill set, capacity and familiarity of child-friendly approaches with an emphasis on understanding child psychology.”

Gaurav Das is a Guwahati-based freelance journalist.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.