Student Police Cadet Project
| Student Police Cadet | |
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| Active | 27 August 2010 |
| Headquarters | Thiruvananthapuram |
| Website | http://www.studentpolicecadet.org |
The Student Police Cadet (SPC) Project is a school-based initiative by Kerala Police, implemented jointly by the Departments of Home and Education, and supported by Departments of Transport, Forest, Excise and Local Self-Government. The project trains high school students to respect the law, practice discipline and civic sense, and develop empathy for vulnerable sections of society. It also strengthens commitment towards family, community, and the environment, enabling them to resist negative tendencies such as substance abuse, deviant behavior, intolerance, and other social evils.
The Project was launched on 2 August 2010 in 127 high schools/higher secondary schools across Kerala, with 11176 students, both boys and girls, enrolled as Cadets and 254 teachers trained as school-level Community Police Officers (CPOs). In 2012, the project was expanded to cover a total of 249 high schools across Kerala, with a combined strength of nearly 16,000 SPCs and 500 CPOs.
The program has its roots in Janakeeyam, a community-level initiative by Kochi City police, in 2006. During the event, more than 400 high school students from 30 local schools interacted with police officers, engaging in wide-ranging discussions on community issues and visiting police stations. During these discussions, the students expressed a desire to have a permanent arrangement for ongoing communication with the police. Accordingly, a pilot Student-Police project was launched on an experimental basis in a few selected schools .
Subsequently, at Kozhikode in January 2010, a squad of specially trained high school students was entrusted with the responsibility of crowd management at Kerala School Youth Festival, Asia's largest youth-focused cultural festival involving more than 10,000 participants. Following the successful execution of this task by the cadets, and in light of the success stories from project-implemented schools, a detailed proposal for a statewide school-based training programme was prepared under the guidance of Sri Jacob Punnoose IPS (DGP-Kerala) and submitted to the Government of Kerala. On the basis of this report, Government of Kerala issued GO (P)121/2010/Home dated 29 May 2010, with the stated objective of moulding a generation of law-abiding, socially committed and service-oriented youth. A state-level Advisory Committee was constituted with Sri. Jacob Punnoose IPS (DGP-Kerala) as chairman, senior Government officials as members, and Sri P Vijayan IPS as State Nodal Officer for the SPC Project.
The SPC project seeks to deepen the social democratic fabric of communities by evolving young minds into enlightened citizens who obey laws not by enforcement but rather as a natural and rational act. The Student Police Cadet Project does not create more policemen, rather it seeks to grow the policeman within each young member of their communities. The SPC project can be expected to generate significant long term benefits such as greater internal security, healthier and safer communities, and responsible future citizens of a stable democracy.
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