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Community engagement and Research activity
Building Trust in Law and Order
Contents
Teacher’s Section .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 1
Expected Outcomes – .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Steps for the activity ............................................................................................................................................. 1
A. Opinion Poll.................................................................................................................................................... 1
B. Explain the story ............................................................................................................................................ 2
A real life Singham – Harshh A. Poddar .......................................................................................................... 2
C. Debrief the Session ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Student’s Section .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Task for students ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Teacher’s Section
Desh Apnayen is starting a series of A real-life Civil heroes from this month. This is the first success story under the
series.
Introduction
Cops are not the only ones who need to take responsibility for building and maintaining a positive relationship with
the citizens they serve. Citizens should also be taking active steps to ensure that trust is being built, by engaging
with the police force in positive ways and collectively building that trust on Law and Order by maintaining a good
relationship with police.
Harshh A Poddar is a live example who made this possible with his continuous efforts. Let the students know about
the success story of Mr. Poddar this month to motivate them to trust police, law, and order.
Expected Outcomes –
Students will
1. Feel motivated to know about such an eminent personality, and will learn to trust the police
2. Be able to think and analyze ways to build relationships with the police department
3. Believe that change can happen with continuous and sustained two-way effort, and they can be the
change.
Steps for the activity
Opinion Poll
What you’ll do in the following situation – Give top 3 answers which come to your mind immediately
1. You are walking near your home in the evening and talking to your friend over the mobile phone. Suddenly 2
bikers pass by and snatch your mobile phone and scoot away.
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2. You see a road accident near your school one day while going to school with your parents
3. In your society, 2 society members are fighting with each other badly over the water issue
4. When you came back from vacations, you find that your house has been robbed
Note down the top responses on Black/Whiteboard and discuss further –
• Why don’t people call police immediately, and as the first option?
• Why don’t people want to report any case in the police station?
• What stops you from believing in law and order?
Sum up the discussion, and start the aspirational story of Mr. Harshh A. Poddar, who has done some fabulous work
to establish the trust for police within the community through his innovative ideas and projects.
B. Explain the story
A real-life Singham – Harshh A. Poddar
The ASP Malegaon’s, Mr. Harshh A. Poddar’s unique initiative has created 42,000 young leaders against crime
and terror in the last three years!
A small town about 110 km away from Nashik with sizeable populations of Muslims and Hindus, Malegaon has a long
history of violent strife, bomb blasts, and communal disturbance. As such, it presents a formidable challenge to law
enforcement agencies.
Children are one of the most at-risk groups there when it comes to crimes committed against people. Whether they
witness or experience violence, it has a lasting effect on them. If their interaction with the police under these
traumatic circumstances is not positive, they run the risk of developing a lifelong distrust of the police. Harshh
Poddar, IPS officer posted in Malegaon realized the fact and decided to do something to get the trust of children and
youth in the police department, law and order. He himself formulated ideas, initiated action that is slowing changing
the way policing is done, how crime is perceived, and how society has the solutions to solve their bigger problems.
During his training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Harssh did a project that involved
conducting a workshop for blind children. What made this workshop’s format different from conventional ones was
that the children were divided into small groups and asked to draft laws for the differently abled (instead of just
listening to lectures on rights and awareness).
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Harssh observed that with assistance and encouragement provided by IPS probationers, the children could learn
better, and they could think of out of the box solutions for their community problems. The same thought struck
Harssh a couple of years later when he was asked by Maharashtra’s DGP to suggest innovative policies that would
effectively tackle juvenile crimes in the State. He proposed the idea of youth parliament and it was accepted, and
thus began the Youth Parliament Championship across Maharashtra.
He introduced innovative measures that led to the formation of an army of 42,000 inspired youngsters to fight crime
and terrorism in a project called Maharashtra Police Youth Parliament Project, to provide the youth a platform to
take action against anti-social tendencies. Each team would be asked to come up with solutions pertaining to the
part they were playing.
More significantly, it was noticed that the students (particularly those from the lower and middle-income groups)
were acting as crucial agents of awareness for their family and neighbours.
By channelizing the energy of Maharashtra's youth in a positive direction, Mr. Poddar has not only given a boost to
the State’s fight against crime, but he has also inspired many officers across the country to do the same.
As rightly said, Where there is will, there is a way, and this real-life Singham proved it very efficiently by working
with young citizens.
C. Debrief the Session
Ask questions to the students –
1. What inspired you about this real-life Singham?
2. Can we young citizens contribute to law formation? If Yes, How?
3. Do the solutions to such big issues of crime lies within us?
4. Have you read about/heard about/seen any such police officer/local hero who helped the community to
maintain law and order in your area? Kindly let us know and we will feature it in our ‘Civil Hero Series’ in
the coming months.
Student’s Section
Task for students
1. Talk to your parents, family, and friends about the story, and try to identify one such local hero in your
community who helped in a unique way to support Law and Order.
For e.g., –
a. My neighbor contributed to CCTV cameras in our society
b. Society members took turns to stay awake the whole night to ensure security
c. My father provided drinking water facility to the traffic police of our area, during summers
If you are not able to find any local hero, research in newspapers and internet and select one story where a good
citizen helped police in maintaining law and order or help the police in some other way.
Present the story in one poster and display in your classroom.
