Brijpur (Panna), Madhya Pradesh
Every morning, Namrata Patel, who studies in class eight at her village school in Badera, travels eight kilometres to the Brijpur Police Station in Panna district.
Badera is a remote village and Namrata has to walk a stretch to the nearest road head from where she and other children from her village take a bus to reach the police station by 7 AM.
A police station in Brijpur where children like Namrata and others are headed has become the unlikely hub of learning. They spend two hours engaged in learning here and then return to their villages where some of them then attend their village schools.
The Brijpur police station has become a favourite hangout for the rural children not just in Brijpur but from several villages nearby. And the cr0edit for the same goes to Bakhat Singh Thakur, a sub inspector and the police-in-charge of Brijpur Thana, pl who has set up a librarly for village children at his police station. This centre of learning is called Vidyadan Pustakalay and almost 150 children from nearby villages visit it every day.
“On July 9, 2021, I took over Brijpur police station. I was yet to familiarise myself with the warp and weft of the area,” sub inspector Thakur told Gaon Connection.
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It was on a morning cycle ride he was taking around the area that he saw a woman with a pickaxe and spade on her shoulder, with two children following her. She was obviously a daily wage labourer.
This centre of learning is called Vidyadan Pustakalay and almost 150 children from nearby villages visit it every day.
“I casually asked her why her kids were not in school and her response shook me. She said — ‘children from our caste do not have any place to study’. I couldn’t sleep that night and her words kept ringing in my ears,” the sub-inspector recalled. Before he joined the police force, Thakur was a teacher himself at Bedri village in Rajnagar block of Chhatarpur district.
Police to the rescue
That chance encounter led to the refurbishing of an old disused building in the precinct that was converted into a library.
“I informed Dharamraj Meena, the superintendent of police, Panna, who encouraged and supported me in my intention to convert the building into a place where poor children could come to learn,” the police-in-charge added. It took five months, but at the end of it the beautiful Vidyadan Pustakalay, a learning centre was ready for action.
As a result the Brijpur police station has become the most sought after hangout for the children from Brijpur and other nearby villages. They gather there to pursue creative activities, completely free of cost.
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“Classes are held regularly for children in the primary and secondary levels. They are coached to appear in examinations and there are facilities here for the children to attend online classes too,” Thakur said.
The aim is to make the centre more and more useful and up to date with the help of the police force as well as the inhabitants of the area.
Two local youth who gave tuitions for a living have been employed to teach the children and the sub-inspector himself takes a few classes when he has the time to do so in between his other policing duties.
Vidyadan Pustakalay: A safe space to pursue learning
Vidyadan Pustakalay is providing a safe space for children of all castes and communities to study and develop. The area around the building has pleasant gardens, open spaces and a grand old banyan tree under which children can play. Kho-kho is the game of choice.
Six-year-old Swati loudly recited an English poem she had learnt for her other friends when Gaon Connection visited the police station recently. Some of the children who frequent Vidyadaan Pustakalay are also being coached to appear in the entrance exam that will help them secure admission at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya ( a system of central schools for talented students predominantly from rural areas in India).
“Shyamu Sir is coaching me and I hope to get admission into Navodaya,” Rohit Patel, a student of class five from Badera village, told Gaon Connection. He travels eight kilometres every day to get here.
“We get textbooks, notebooks, pencils and pens as well as rucksacks to carry them,” Harsh Yadav, another Navodaya aspirant, told Gaon Connection. Harsh is from Dharampur village, close by. “I used to fear coming here before, but not any more. We even get warm clothes in winters,” he added.
Building bridges
“Many people I know were sceptical about Vidyadaan Pustakalay when we began. There is a tendency amongst people to fear and be wary of the police, which was a challenge for us to dispel,” Thakur said.
In order to reassure the people, Thakur began to tour the nearby villages on his cycle. “I visited five to six villages every day, met the inhabitants of the villages and established a relationship of trust and friendship,” the sub-inspector said.
According to him, his visits paid off and the village people are more than happy to send their children to Vidyadan Pustakalay. Now, almost 150 children frequent the learning centre every day, he said.
The children spend two hours engaged in learning here and then return to their villages where some of them then attend their village schools.
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Promoting sports and environment awareness
On Sundays there are games and other activities that children can participate in, sub-inspector Thakur said. Vidyadan Pustakalay also holds awareness drives on environment matters, the ills of alcohol and substance abuse, and cleanliness and hygiene.
“We have also started the practice of planting saplings on the birthdays of students. So far we have planted hundreds of fruit and other trees that are all surviving,” Thakur said. Behind the library is an empty stretch of land that the police station has turned into an organic farm.
Tackling crime with education
These initiatives have led to a decrease in criminal activities, believes Thakur. “When I was posted here in 2020, there were 324 crimes of various nature registered at the station. In 2022 it was only 185,” he pointed out.
Thakur is himself from Sattai village in Chhatarpur district and was a teacher himself at Bedri village in Rajnagar block of the district. He also went on to become the sarpanch of Shivrajpur village in Rajnagar tehsil between 2004 and 2009. After his tenure as a sarpanch, he worked at a high school in Mandla village in Panna district between 2009 and 2013, when he joined the police.
“After serving in the districts of Sagar and Damoh, I came to Panna and have been at Brijpur ever since,” Thakur said.
It is his intention, he said, to clean up the image of the police, reduce crime and maintain a good relationship with peace loving people in society.
