Angels in blue jacket! Assam’s Child-Friendly Police Officers will now deal with child-related cases

Guwahati, August 29: Unique as it looks, productive so it is. Aiming to make a child-friendly environment, the Assam government has taken up a unique initiative as the state police will now have 'Child-Friendly Police Officers'. Named as the Assam Police Sishu Mitra Program, the program was launched by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The initiative has been undertaken by 'Utsah', a local NGO working in the field of child welfare along with UNICEF and Assam Police.

 

Under the child-friendly initiative of Assam police and Utsah, a special jacket has been designed for the police officers to wear it while dealing with child-related cases. The jacket is of child-friendly light blue colour, with adequate pockets and pen holders. The jacket has been specially designed to hide the belt and the gun. It may be mentioned that as prescribed by Juvenile Law, a police officer should not be in uniform while dealing with a child.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal lauding the efforts of the Assam Police, UNICEF and Utsah, said that this unique initiative will set a benchmark across the country. A first of its kind initiative in the country, the Assam Police’s Sishu Mitra programme will create more child friendly police officials, child friendly corners in police stations and provide soft skills training to police personnel on how to deal with children.

He said, “There's nothing more important to the future of society than the safety of children.” He further added a child-friendly environment should be created in all police stations of Assam. He congratulated the department for the move.

Protecting children is our responsibility. Be it home, schools or public places, we the parents, teachers, elders and senior citizens must work together to create a child friendly atmosphere for children to grow. Assam Chief Minister applauded the state police for their dedicated service for the cause of people and ensuring security of the society. The programme will further increase its citizen-oriented approach and help children in need of assistance.