Kickstarting Child Protection in Solapur: Police Training on POCSO

On 17th June 2015, Aarambh’s Training Session on the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act received some unlikely praise. It came at the close of an engaging three hour Police Training session in the city of Solapur, Maharashtra. Aarambh’s master trainer Uma Subramanian had just finished addressing a crowd of around 70 which included police officers from across the district, members of the district child protection unit and the Child Welfare Committee. A young police officer in the audience, a lady Sub-Inspector, reached out to the mike.

She looked out to her fellow officers and said, “Let’s face it – it is not easy for us (the police) to stay awake. We have night duty, extra hours, long days… you name it! We need our post-lunch siesta. But today is the first-ever training where our attention never wavered. We were aware and awake and felt like we were part of it. The session was delivered in a language and manner that we could relate to. And now the next time we come across a case of POCSO, we know what we must do.”

The hall exploded in laughter, cheers and applause.

After our Police Trainings in Mumbai and Thane Districts, it was word of a mouth and a young District Child Protection Officer by the name of Nitin Thorat that got the Aarambh training to Solapur. Mr. Thorat is among the new breed of committed DCPOs who are putting in every effort to make Maharashtra’s judicial systems child safe and friendly. He understands the challenge and importance of building a child protection system from the ground up. A relatively new appointee, he has already succeeded in establishing Child Protection Committees in each of Solapur District’s around 1400 villages. “Awareness and training are key to building a system where everyone understands their responsibilities and works together to protect our children,” he says.

Senior Police Officer of Solapur (Rural) Ms. Manisha Dubule inaugurated the event. “Child are the future of our country,” she said. “Laws like POCSO have been introduced to safeguard our future. They are essential to our nation. We must adapt to it and learn to enforce it to the best of our abilities.”

The Aarambh training was the first official police training in POCSO in Solapur since the law came into force in 2012. Most officers present at the session said that they had heard of the law. Some had even actively worked on cases under it.

The CWC members claim that on an average they receive more than 2 cases every month. Everyone shared the opinion that as awareness continues to spread in the district, more and more cases are liable to come to light.

For purposes of this training, Aarambh adapted the module into Marathi. The session covered the history of the law, the calibration of offences, the sections and punishments. It placed a lot of onus of the role and responsibilities of the police and other stakeholders. Like every Aarambh module, the POCSO training too is designed to be interactive and dynamic.

The final 45 minutes of session were kept aside for discussions and queries. Confusions regarding division of roles and responsibilities between CWC and Police were discussed and ironed out. Some on-ground challenges like ‘victims and families turning hostile’ and ‘teenage love affairs where cases are filed by parents’ were discussed. Best practices that are being followed were shared.

Aarambh unveiled some of our Marathi posters for Police Stations & Child Care Institutions that we are currently in the process of finalizing. They were well received and we were immediately asked how soon we could get them printed.

This training was just the beginning. There is still a long way to go for Solapur towards Child Rights, Safety and Security.

But at the end of the training, only a curmudgeon could deny the spark of positivity in the air. For now, Solapur’s Child Protection seems like it is in committed and capable hands.