Pune’s Lashkar Police Station Is Maharashtra’s First Child-Friendly Police Station

Mehab Qureshi

Camp, November 30, 2020: Pune City police along with the NGO ‘Hope For Children’ have established Maharashtra’s first ‘child-friendly corner’ on the premises of Lashkar Police station for children who either have been a victim of a crime or involved in any crime. Abhay Karandikar, Director of IIT Kanpur, inaugurated the facility.

The facility resembles a kindergarten classroom with wall paintings and several toys. Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta, Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisve, Deputy Commissioner of Police Bachchan Singh, and Senior Police Inspector Ashok Kadam were present.

“We have built this facility due to the rise in crime against children. Here children will be able to communicate without fear. Similar facilities will be set up at other police stations in the coming months”, said DCP Bachchan Singh.

Addressing all the members, NGO Hope For Children founder Caroline Boudoir de Valter said, “We are creating history together. As for the past year, our NGO has been working closely to create this. With the largest population of children, the crime rate towards children has also increased and some challenging factors are early child marriage, child labour, physical and emotional abuse. Hence, it was important for us to build Child-friendly spaces so that Quality of intervention and Access to legal aid increases for the betterment of the children.”

Meanwhile, city top cop Gupta congratulated the team for their joint effort and said, “Many more projects will come forward this year because the child-friendly station is a basic part of policing.”

Ending the function with a delighted note Karandikar added, “We would like the police station to be friendly. We need to reform the children so that they don’t get involved in crime. Any such activities require stalk holders and I hope this will be a trendsetter.”