The Student Police Cadets (SPC) scheme is marching ahead with confidence to the next phase of its operations.
The Thrissur City Police Commissioner and State nodal officer of SPC, P. Vijayan, has prepared a vision document on preparing the cadets to take up waste management drive. The document has been presented before the Union Minister of Home and the State Chief Minister.
The scheme is getting queries from States interested in adopting it. The Chief Minister of Goa has requested for a presentation of SPC scheme and a batch of police officers from Rajastan came over to study the project in details. “The Rajasthan government has also requested us to take a look at the official order regarding the implementation of the SPC there,” Mr. Vijayan told The Hindu .
Two-year-old SPC has managed not to be just one among the pack of youth brigades. It has carved out an identity different from that of NCC and NSS. “Now it is time to move on and introduce the SPCs to their original role – that of taking up leadership positions in the social network,” he said.
The vision document titled ‘Responsible Waste Management 2022’ listed its main objectives as to create awareness among all students regarding various aspects of man-made waste and techniques of waste management, to enable SPCs to play a leadership role in contributing to community-level activities focused on waste reduction, to train SPCs to implement sensible waste-handling practices in their own households, and to empower SPCs to function as facilitators of change within the student community as well as elsewhere regarding waste management.
The project has also listed a goal — “Working towards a Plastic-free Community”. At present, 16,500 cadets have been enlisted in 234 schools where SPC is on. The vision document has also outlined the training modules.
This included indoor classes by experts on subjects like “techniques of waste management” and “environmental consequences of improper waste management”, training sessions for SPCs on handling waste at the source, encouraging SPCs to have vegetable gardens at school and home and also to set up small livestock breeding units, conducting workshops on “Safe Recycling and Reuse of Waste materials”, organising field visits to waste management sites and establishments and training workshops on manufacture of eco-friendly carry bags for supply to local shops and establishments.
At the second anniversary celebrations held here recently, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, said this would be extended to all schools in the State in a phased manner.
