Delhi’s new Northeast cops get to grips with Hindi

NEW DELHI: Armed with books for class 3 students, a group of 12 Delhi police sub-inspectors has been meeting at the police library every Sunday to take Hindi lessons.

NEW DELHI: Armed with books for class 3 students, a group of 12 Delhi police sub-inspectors has been meeting at the police library every Sunday to take Hindi lessons.

HT Image

As they waited in the classroom last weekend, assistant sub-inspector Jai Singh walked into the class at 11am carrying a set of test papers for the 12 officers.

Singh is junior in rank, but the officers address him as ‘sir’ in the classroom.

The officers from the Northeast joined Delhi police in 2015 and soon realised their biggest drawback — fluency in Hindi. They met joint commissioner of police Robin Hibu, a native of Arunachal Pradesh who heads the police special unit for the Northeast, and requested for Hindi lessons. He helped.

Since August, for three hours every Sunday, Singh ‘sir’ has been teaching them the language.

“I wanted to learn Hindi long ago but never found the time or the opportunity. I am grateful now to get Hindi lessons here,” sub-inspector Birjit said in Hindi.

In one of the classes, an officer asked Singh the meaning of “sair karne gaya (gone for a walk)”. There was confusion, perhaps with the pronunciation, because he thought “sair” is the same as “sher”, the Hindi word for tiger.

Singh explained that the word “sair” in the given sentence means a walk.

“They are improving. Initially it was very difficult but I am teaching them Hindi from the nursery level. They get homework and I evaluate them,” Singh said.

After 16 years, a team of Delhi police officers visited the eight northeastern states, including Sikkim, in 2015 to recruit men and women for the city police. Around 450 men and women were picked. It is part of the central government’s initiative to turn Delhi police into a cosmopolitan force.

“We now read Hindi signboards and newspapers. Give us some time and we will be fluent,” sub-inspector Lungfu said.

IPS officer Hibu described the “pupils” as a bunch of young enthusiastic officers who are learning to overcome their language barrier to serve the people in Delhi.