Compliant letters from Children- Policing in Kochi?

The police officials found many short letters written in broken English, filling the compliant boxes put up at several schools across Kochi. Some of them read, ‘Cooler is not working so we cannot sit at class room,', ‘Sir, there are big grasses in the school ground, so we cannot play and toilets are not clean. Please clean it,', ‘We did not get meals on Friday', ‘The teacher beat me for making mistake.'

The police consider the letter boxes as the prime source to restrict crime against children.

A good number of complaint letters are received by the police. The letters consists of both serious and trivial matters. 171 schools in Kochi have complaint boxes installed and the complaints are handled by each local police station.

110 complaints have been received in the past three months and actions against each has been taken care of by the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police, V M Muhammad Rafique said, "In September, we received 45 complaints, in October, 39 and in November, 26. We go through the complaints in detail and take the necessary measures. If the complaint is against the school, we inform the school authorities about it and give a report. If it is against the teachers, we speak about it to the principal of school. We have managed to find a solution for each problem of the students."

The compliant boxes hold complaints against teachers and schools, along with providing vital information about eve-teasers and aberrant buses. A police official said, "Most complaints made by the students are against private buses. In some letters, the students have given the name of the bus and its registration number. In such cases, we ask the employees and owners of the bus to come to the police station for inquiry. If the complaint is found to be authentic, a case is registered. We were able to nab several eve-teasers in buses and public places."

Kochi city police have taken a very novel initiative of setting up complaint boxes in the city. This success has made the Home Department to give orders to implement the complaint boxes across the state.

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