Retired IPS officer Suresh Khopade, known for his Mohalla Committees experiment which restored communal harmony in Bhivandi after the 1992 riots, has another idea up his sleeve. Coming Sunday, he will be launching a new experiment which is aimed at providing a new direction to the education system as well as exploring life through innovative thinking.
Speaking to dna, Khopade said that he has founded the Navi Disha Academy (New Directions Academy) which would be undertaking 'Kudachi Shala' or a school without any doors, and 'Binbhintichi Prayogshala' a laboratory without any walls for thinking innovatively in a group. Khopade said that he has planted 450 plant species including medicinal plants, flower and fruit bearing plants, and native plants which are not seen outside Dhole Mala, (Post Morgaon, Taluka Baramati, Pune). It is situated between Jejuri and Morgaon, around 62 kilometres from Pune. An artificial lake that they built have even started attracting several species of birds. He has also collected 200 types of minerals and rocks which students as well as other enthusiasts can study.
Khopade will also be organising small workshops for innovative thinking on range of issues for activists from various organizations. These issues could be fair price for farmer's produce, public movements or industrial unrest. He said that an depth knowledge, wisdom and shedding of linear thinking will be taught by the New Directions Academy, which will have experts from a number of NGOs associated with his work. The retired officer said that this experiment will be launched with a get together of like-minded experts, activists and social workers from 10 to 15 different organizations.
Khopade has penned his experiments in policing including those in Bhivandi in books. He is considered as a breakthrough innovator in the realm of policing and public administration, especially community policing. The Bhivandi experiment is nationally and internationally acclaimed by experts, sociologists, political scientists and the media. Khopade, who retired in 2011 as special inspector general of police, later contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramati in 2014.
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