Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh Police Academy had produced a 45-minute docudrama “Tum Raho Sajag” for training of the election-related field staffers for the Assembly polls in the state. All the roles in the docudrama were played by the cops. They played candidates, their supporters, voters and even anti-socials. The actors ranged from trainee constables to the academy’s director Malay Jain.
The docudrama covered the dos and don’ts for cops during polls. What precautions they should take from the day of the filing of nominations by candidates to polling and counting were explained. The docudrama directed by Jain (who is also a novelist) and Bhopal-based filmmaker Narendra Sahu, was inspired by a similar short film made by ex-MP police officer and theatre artist Dr Fareed Bazmi around two decades ago.
Not only did Jain direct the docudrama, but also essayed the role of an SP in the 45-minutes film, where the district collector’s role was played by additional SP Shraddha Joshi. “It was a team effort of 25-plus staff of the Academy, as each and every role in it was played by cops only,” Jain said.
The training for cops with regard to elections began in August and was conducted at three levels: state, zonal and district. At all three levels it started with training of master trainers who subsequently turned into trainers for the remaining trainees.
Certification of the master trainers was done through a Learning Management System, four sets of quiz comprising 25 multiple choice questions each was uploaded along with relevant training material incorporating major elections issues particularly related to police.
At all multiple levels of training, including the most critical district level training of poll duty staff (particularly cops, home guards and forest department personnel), not just police officers were pressed in as trainers, but other officials, including prosecution and administrative officials too were roped in to broad-base and cover all possible training parameters.
In total over one lakh staff, spanning from forest guards, home guards and constables to special DG level officers, were covered by the election training by the MP police and the entire process will be forwarded to the central government Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) to be included among the best practices.
Top officials appreciated the efforts of the MP Police’s Training Wing as training holds the key to the success of any big exercise, particularly the elections. And adding audio-visual material, like documentary drama, makes the exercise more enriching and result oriented. The results are for all to see in the form of the all-time highest poll per centage of 76.22% (provisional currently), which couldn’t have been possible without comprehensive training of poll duty staff.
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