Pimpri-Chinchwad police launches Disha campaign for juveniles exposed to crime

Going beyond the call of duty, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have launched the ‘Disha campaign’ which aims to prevent the youth from getting involved in criminal activities

Going beyond the call of duty, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have launched the ‘Disha campaign’ which aims to prevent the youth from getting involved in criminal activities. Under the initiative coined by police commissioner Ankush Shinde, the police have identified 405 juveniles from 78 slums frequently involved in criminal activities who need to be kept away from such pursuits. Of the 405 juveniles the police have decided to target under the ‘Disha campaign’, 192 are addicts while 213 are school dropouts.

Police have taken 64 different initiatives under ‘Disha Initiative’ through which total 40 school drop outs were rehabilitated. (Representative image)

Shinde said, “It is easy to register cases against the youth and put them behind bars. But considering their age and career, we have decided to involve them in different kinds of activities so that they stay away from criminal activities.’’

As part of the campaign, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have appointed one ‘Disha committee’ for each slum comprising one sports coordinator, one female coordinator and one de-addiction coordinator to monitor the activity of 327 juveniles. The coordinators have their job cut out and have to report to the concerned police stations.

In the first week of November, the Talegaon-Dabhade police had detained nine minors in connection with the murder of a 19-year-old college student. The nine belonged to a group of 15 to 20 minors who attacked the victim with sickles and iron rods. During separate investigations, the police found that many of these youngsters belonged to impoverished backgrounds and were exposed to illegal activities in their surroundings due to which they could not differentiate between good and bad. At the time, the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad police decided to counsel these minors to prevent them from taking to criminal activities. Taking this a step further, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police then decided to identify juveniles across the city and prevent them from getting involved in criminal pursuits.

Kalpesh Igave, who heads the Special Juvenile Cell of the Pimpri-Chinchwad police, said that the Pimpri-Chinchwad police have tied-up with Teree De Homes, Hope for Children, Vimal Foundation and Arogya Mitra Foundation to involve juveniles in various productive activities under the ‘Disha campaign’.

While Teree De Homes and Hope for Children have been offering at least four vocational training courses for the juveniles at the Kohinoor Institute and as of now, these courses include electrical equipment repairs and mobile repairs among others. Additionally, the Vimal Foundation and Arogya Mitra Foundation have taken up the cause of the addicted juveniles and are providing them medical treatment free-of-cost.

The ‘Nigdi Ota scheme’ which again is a part of the ‘Disha campaign’ concerns ‘Nigdi Ota’ which is the biggest slum in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area. A majority of the juveniles targeted under the Disha campaign hail from Nigdi Ota. Hence, with the help of the Sandesh Borde Foundation, the police have decided to involve these juveniles in sports such as football. A team of 20 juveniles recently participated in the ‘slum soccer’ tournament held at Nagpur only to be selected as the ‘best team’, Igave said.

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