THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, December 26: One hears of community policing most of the time, but has anyone ever heard about student policing?
Student policing is a very much in-thing of Latehar district police. However, it remained off the news hook.
Credit goes to the Latehar SP Kumar Gaurav, who has prepared an annual district police report card for 2025, where student policing and the Student Police Cadet Programme feature prominently.
MHA’s Student Police Cadet Programme in LWE Areas
Latehar district police conduct student policing. It’s under the aegis of the Student Police Cadet Programme of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The MHA has launched this Student Police Cadet Programme in the left wing extremism hit district.
Non extremist hit districts like Sahibganj do not come under the Student Police Cadet Programme of the MHA, said sources.
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Police Officers as Mentors Inside Classrooms
Latehar SP Kumar Gaurav told the Jharkhand Story Network correspondent, “Under student police cadet programme our police officer visits identified school once in a month where he speaks about issues like child abuse or child trafficking or how family gets ruined if the parent is alcoholic or how cyber criminals dupe the people, impact of domestic violence, gender crime, crime against women, road accident and road safety etc.”
Class 8 and 9 students are under the Student Police Cadet Programme. The students don’t get any ‘bullet of dos and don’ts.’ The police officer cum teacher prepares students to fight evils, mentally.
Administrative Synergy Strengthening the Initiative
Latehar district has at present a well-coordinated administrative setup where civil and police administrations work in unison and in full confidence of each other.
DC Utkarsh Gupta and SP Kumar Gaurav can be seen together in many government functions with a body language of ‘here we go’. The ‘I’ feeling is nowhere around in the Latehar administration. It’s ‘We’, said sources.
Schools Identified and Funds Deployed for Outreach
11 state and central government schools, including Kendriya Vidyalaya and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Latehar district are identified schools where student policing and Student Police Cadet Programme takes off almost every month, added the SP Latehar Kumar Gaurav.
The MHA, through the state government, has reached 9 lakhs of rupees for the Student Police Cadet Programme, where @ of 50,000 rupees per 11 identified schools, a sum of rupees 5,50,000 rupees has been so far spent on student policing, study tour, etc., said sources in the Latehar police.
