Guwahati, April 28: In village after village across Assam, a silent revolution is changing the face of the once superstition-ridden society and giving a new mantra of life to hardened criminals.
Consider this: In Khagail village of Karimganj district, former dacoits are now actually serving as village policemen and helping the people combat crime at the grassroots level.
Indeed, just two years after its launch, Assam police’s ambitious Project Prahari has brought back smiles on the faces of thousands of people and proved the sceptics wrong.
An acronym for “people for progress”, Project Prahari first got under way at Thaigarguri village in Kokrajhar district in September 2001. Kuladhar Saikia, an IPS officer, initiated it to combat witchcraft.
After witchcraft was eradicated in Thaigarguri, police chief Hare Krishna Deka made Project Prahari a state-level peace and development initiative as part of the community policing scheme and extended it to 35 villages across the state.
The rate of insurgency-related crime has declined in eight villages under Kochugaon police station of Kokrajhar district. Before Project Prahari was launched, nine persons had been killed or injured in these eight villages in 2001.
Project Prahari entered Kochugaon one-and-a-half years ago and immediately succeeded in lowering the crime rate. In 2002, only three persons were killed or injured in the area. This year, only one such incident has been reported and not a single abduction has taken place since last year.
Saikia’s concept envisages prevention of crime through non-conventional policing. It also aims at encouraging the youth to be involved in constructive activity instead of veering towards militancy.
In Khagail village of Karimganj district, 11 dacoits surrendered and volunteered to work for Project Prahari. “These dacoits are now helping the police combat crime at the grassroots level. They are convincing other dacoits to surrender and lead peaceful lives,” R.M. Singh, commandant of the 7 Battalion of Assam police said.
Singh is the nodal officer for Project Prahari.
Prior to Project Prahari, the number of dacoities in the Khagail area was 28 in 2000 alone. After the project was launched, such incidents came down to eight in 2001 and six in 2002. No such incident has been reported this year.
In Kokrajhar, the public response to Project Prahari has compelled Bodo militants to leave the Kochugaon area. The militants could not stop the project because it was the catalyst for development of these remote villages, which had long been neglected by government agencies.