Chhattisgarh Project

29 August 2005: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in collaboration with the State Human Rights Commission, Chhattisgarh is organising a workshop on Police Media Interface at Hotel Babylon, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The workshop aims to create a dialogue between the two arms of a democratic society. The media is the vector which carries forward public opinion and more importantly helps to create an informed opinion about the performance of various machinaries of the government, in this case the police. Thereby in bringing both the stakeholders on a common platform CHRI believes that it will help catalyse an effective partnership in working towards a civil society.

The main objectives of the workshop are:

• to deliberate on the experiences of the media while interacting with the police and the resultant impact on reporting.
• to understand the complexities of policing and the policies they adopt while interacting with the media
• to build a stronger police media interface through workable solutions.

Click here for the pictures.

Legal Literacy Workshops:

A schedule for a series of legal literacy workshops have been finalized and will be initiated in the month of May 2005. This will be held in Mana police station jurisdictional Area, to supplement, strengthen and further our community policing initiatives in our Chhattisgarh Project.

This will also involve various NGO's and civil societies from Chhattisgarh itself, to give the local community along with the police - insights into various aspects and issues of Human and Fundamental Rights. We are also looking at having an awareness programme in connection with the Panchayats, as the public need to know what the Panchayats are all about, their functions and activities and how they are there to assist society. Scroll down to see the Agenda for the Legal Literacy Programme.

Schedule of 'Awareness& Sensitisation Programme in Mana':

Television Spots:The three television spots which were prepared on citizen's rights and to build a closer relation between the police and the community are being run on the local cable television since their launch on 10 December 2004 marking the Human Rights Day. The spots will continue to run on the cable channels in Raipur and Durg districts for a period of 6 months. There has been a positive response to this initiative.

These television spots have been converted from the digi-beta format to a 35mm film format for screening at Raipur theatres. They are currently in the process of being distributed throughout Raipur and will soon be screened in all theatres.

June 2005 (end): This period will be used for evaluation work in the maana police station and the community, as a year will have been completed.

The objective of this evaluation/analysis is to verify on a primary basic level whether there has been a change for the better ever since we began our community policing in the Maana area. It will gauge the need for further modification of existing strategy or a total revamping in strategy, etc.

The analysis will be conducted through a series of interviews and questionnaires.

Communications Strategy:

6 March - 2 April 2005 - Nukkad Natak (Street Plays): The idea for having a Nukad Natak (street play) arose to fulfill the knowledge requirements of both the police and the community. The play concentrates on communicating to the citizens about the necessity of police-public interactions Public mistrust of police has well documented in the states of India and Chhattisgarh is no different. Such initiatives will help lessen the distance between the community and its police.

The concept of community policing provides for a greater transparency in the public- police relationship. For example, in Maana, CHRI conducts nine meetings a month and some of these meetings are attended by senior officials. This concept also is in continuation of CHRI Chhattisgarh team in bringing about legal awareness with the use of alternative media to reach out to the citizens and community about their rights and to build up their interest. 'Sutradhar' an amateur theatre group from Bhillai (also ex-participants to our workshops on police reforms) have been requested to facilitate these programmes. They have been hosting plays with socio-legal messages for several years now.

The series of performances kick started on 6th March at Maana Basti, the center of the Maana area and Dharampura. The local Panchayat, the police and the CLG (Community Liaison Groups) were very cooperative and took an active part in arranging the venue, advertising the play dates and timings, assisting with the questionnaires on Public perception of the Maana police station as well as the evaluation of the message delivered by the Nukad Natak, law and order etc. The tentative schedule for the Nukad Natak is given below. These plays are performed on weekends to encourage greater participation of the community.

Schedule of 'Nukad- Natak':

** We are video recording the final day performance at Mana Camp area and inviting some officers from CGHRC & PHQ; the date is tentatively fixed for either the 2nd/3rd of April.

27 March 2005: IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association) is organising a state level series of street plays on the 27th of March to celebrate World Theatre Day, in the city of Raipur. CHRI with Sutradhar will put up "Hum Sub Hain Police" as part of the programme, which is to be showcased in Raipur city, along with several other theatre groups.

1 -7 April 2005: Profiling of Maana police station and staff members.

7 - 13 April 2005 (Police Diary Observation): The Diarisation programme will take a peek into the life of a police station on a daily basis, varying in time and venue. This study seeks to identify whether the police personnel are utilising their time and efforts productively.

13 - 18 April 2005: ' Process Documentation' in Maana Police Station will be initiated in the month of April in Chhattisgarh.

16 April 2005: CLG ( Committee Liaison Group) meeting in 2 villages and profiling of the same.

17 April 2005: CLG ( Committee Liaison Group) meeting in 2 villages and profiling of CLG members - this would involve a question and answer session.

Legal Literacy Workshops: Watch this spot: tentative plans for a series of legal literacy workshops will be held in Maana Area to supplement, strengthen and further our community policing initiatives in our Chhattisgarh Project. Currently this is in the planning / organising stage.

Television Spots: The three televison spots which were prepared on citizen's rights and to build a closer relation between the police and the community are being run on the local cable television since their launch on 10 December 2004 marking the Human Rights Day. The spots will continue to run on the cable channels in Raipur and Durg districts for a period of 6 months. There has been a positive response to this initiative.

We are now in the process of converting these spots that were shot on digi beta format to a 35mm film format for screening at Raipur theatres.

20 February - 24 February 2005: The Joint Director of the Chhattisgarh State Human Rights Commission, Mr. Subhash Mishra visited CHRI between 20 - 24 February to plan out the frame work of a book on "Policing in Chhattisgarh" which is being prepared in joint collaboration between CHRI and the SHRC and targetted at civil society and the police of the state.

Survey

29 January - 16 February 2005: As a part of the ongoing efforts to bring about a change in the police process, a public perception of the police was conducted in coordination with Mahant Lakshmi Narayan Das College, Raipur. The survey was conducted between 29 January - 16 February with the help of 21 students and 3 supervisors. Seven hundred twenty persons were interviewed. The data has been processed and the final report will be compiled shortly. It is important to add here that this is a random sample survey and does not take the opinion of all the population of Raipur or Chhattisgarh.

Consultation Meetings (Police Diary Observation)

30 January - 3 February 2005: Chris Davis of PA Consulting, who is presently volunteering for CHRI police reforms project visited Raipur with the programme staff from 30 January - 3 February. He held several meetings with officials in the state to investigate possible ways to realise police reforms into a practical process. It was decided that CHRI needs to prepare a diary of police personnel and of a police station. This will not only deepen CHRI's own understanding of the area, but also help the government in understanding why the police are not able to provide reassuarance policing. The research design is presently underway.

14 - 15 July 2004 - Human Rights Sensitisation for Police Personnel at Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh. Click here for the pictures.

7 - 10 July 2004 - Human Rights Sensitisation for Police Personnel at Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh. Click here for the pictures.

4 July 2004 - Human Rights Sensitisation for Police Personnel at Mana Raipur. Click here for the pictures.

24 - 27 May 2004 - Human Rights Sensitisation for Police Personnel at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Click here for the pictures.

3 November 2003 - Sensitisation of the staff of the Chhattisgarh State Human Rights Commission.

1 November 2003 - Legal Literacy Camp at Kalyan College Bhillai, Chhatisgarh.

14 March 2003 - Legal Literacy Meeting at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.

10 March 2003 - Follow up meeting on Community policing on Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Click here for pictures.

6 March 2003 - One day Legal Awareness meeting at Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.

6 March 2003 - One day Legal Awareness meeting at Bhatagaon, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

3 December 2002 - Legal Literacy Camp at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.

1 December 2002 - One Day workshop on Community Policing at Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.

7 September 2002 - One-Day workshop on Police Reforms (for Media People) at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.

6 September 2002 One-Day workshop on Police Problems at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh (only for police officers).

10 June 2002 - One-Day workshop on Police Reforms at Raipur.