Kiddo Police: Grand Salute!

The first time I’ve ever seen a policeman so close during my schooldays where when I went with my cousin to a police station recover his stolen bicycle. Later I’ve seen the NCC practice sessions in the ground we used to play football. Fortunately or unfortunately the school I’ve been to, wasn’t enrolled with NCC. So none of us never got a chance to wear the uniform.  Would I, If I had a chance, is a different question. I doubt how many people had joined the NCC but for the free food allowance and grace marks.

Scouts & Guides also wasn’t very popular. In fact I’ve heard of them for the first time, The very first I’ve heard of them was when a National Scout Jamboree happened in my town, when I was in high school.

Most of the schooling went uneventful, with very few interactions with police uncles and other uniformed folks (except for auto-rickshaw drivers, of course.) The first real chance for the social service was when we had a 10 day camp at a Juvenile prison as a part of our college NSS activities. And much followed after that.

Except for the annual picnics, there are very few chances that I and most of the students at my age had to interact with the society at large. Yeah, then there was this scheme where in students from schools volunteers for traffic control. This is a very successful model that Traffic Control Dept. has implemented to make use of unadulterated minds, probably the best ‘Catch-Them-Young’ program.

Now, Kerala police has gone one step forward with their ‘Student Police Cadet‘ Program. A real replicable model, this program is a collaborative effort of state Home and Educational ministries, being implemented in a selected few schools now. The first phase will be piloted in around 100 schools.

The idea of student police was first introduced in a Govt public program, in 2006. The pilot was done in 3 schools in 2008; Later Kerala School Cultural Festival, the largest of it’s kind in Asia witnessed the enthusiasm and effort of the kiddo police.

These kids will get formal training from Kerala police in an array of fields including First Aid, Bomb detection and diffusion, Fire handling, Traffic and crowd control etc.,

So next time, when you’re in Kerala, don’t be too surprised if you ran into one of those kids in uniform. Just give them a salute!