Operation Gurukulam, one of the most successful initiatives by Kottayam Police in social intervention in recent times, will be strengthened and relaunched soon.
The programme originally launched in 2013 as an ‘unauthorised absence’ monitoring project in schools had went on to become an effective tool not only in reducing unauthorised absence in schools in an around Kottayam town, but also in fighting substance abuse among schoolchildren.
However, for various reasons, the programme was not active as before during the past two years. A meeting of stakeholders including school teachers and representatives of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) coming under Kottayam Sub Division was held on Saturday as part of the new initiative.
Speaking on the occasion, District Police Chief Hari Sankar said the programme would be broadened and implemented with vigour.
Operation Gurukulam was the result of the realisation among the police personnel in the district that the first step into the world of drug abuse, which was on a rise in an unprecedented scale in the district at that time, was unauthorised absence from schools. In spite of teething troubles, the programme soon caught the imagination of both the school authorities and parents.
At the height of it popularity, 570 schools were active members of the programme. The police department had, with the aid of IT students from local engineering colleges, had developed a special attendance monitoring software which was incorporated in computers in members schools which linked them to the central monitoring system operated by the police department.
With the help of the monitoring software, the designated police officer would contact the parents of those who were absent to ascertain whether the absence was known to the parent. According to police authorities, the system had gone a long way in reducing unauthorised absence in the member schools. In many schools there was already a system where the absence of a student was informed to the parent through SMS. However a Teacher-Police-Parent system of informing the absence was found to be more effective than a Teacher-Parent system, it was pointed out.
Another fallout of the programme was that the police personnel could make a better relationship with the students, especially who were in distress.
According to them, the students both girls and boys easily confided in the ‘Police Uncle’ or ‘Police Aunty’ about problems they faced at home or among the peer group than they would confide in teachers or parents.
Busting gangs
Since those who get involved in drug or sex abuse cases do it in gangs, the information from troubled students were helpful in busting such groups. The involvement of the police could also take out girls from prospective sex abuse incidents, they pointed out. Those addicted to computer games or social media have also come to the attention of the police. In fact, the student-centric project had to deal with the drug abuse among parents and take them for medical management, a police official said.
According to the police, though 570 schools are members of the project, only 100 or so schools actively participate in the programme.
“This school year itself we have come across more than 1,000 unauthorised absences and most of them were facing some sort of trouble,” they said, pointing to the effectiveness of the programme. . As such efforts would be taken to make all members schools active participants in Operation Gurukulam, they said.
The programme is being implemented through a team of police personnel with Vinod Pillai, Dy.SP. (Administration) as nodal officer and R Sreekumar. Dy.SP. (Kottayam) as Operational Head.
