Going beyond traditional methods of reining in crime in a first-of-its-kind endeavour, the Outer Delhi Police organised a six-day “Art of Living” programme for registered bad characters of several police stations of the district.
Though the number of participants in the programme, which was held at Pitampura Police Lines from December 1 to 6, declined gradually from 63 on the first day to 30 on the concluding day, those who stayed till the end felt it was a life changing experience.
Not compulsary
“Initially we brought four to five bad characters from each police station and persuaded them to experience it for a day. At the end of the session on the first day, I addressed them and told them there was no compulsion on their part to continue with the programme. The next day the number reduced to 49, but it stabilised at 30. When I interacted with the 30 on the last day, some of them felt that they would not have entered the world of crime had there been such guidance for them earlier and insisted on its continuation. So, we have decided to hold a fresher course every Sunday for these people,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) B.S. Jaiswal.
Life skills
The programme, called “Youth Leadership Training,” comprised yoga, dhyan and sudarshan kriya , life skills, de-stress and de-addiction, ways to control violent and negative tendencies and Improve their behaviour towards society to be law-abiding citizens.
On what prompted him to take up such a programme, Mr. Jaiswal said: “It was the people from the Art of Living organisation who contacted me to hold a programme in the district. They had held several such programmes for the masses earlier, but never for people with criminal backgrounds. We thought of giving it a try and this is how it happened.”
Previous attempt
But the success did not come without a failure. “We first held the programme in November, but it ended abruptly after none of the participants turned up on the second day. We were a little hesitant this time round going by the past experience and did not give it much publicity. But it worked this time. It is good beginning and we hope to carry it forward.”
