Kia Scherr does not believe in brooding over the past. The American, who lost her husband and a daughter in the 26/11 terror attacks, returned to the city to spread a message of positivity. Her NGO, One Life Alliance, put up a 15-minute play on Saturday to train Mumbai police officers on emotional intelligence. The training was aimed at changing the attitude of police towards the members of the public.
"Love was brutally lacking in the terrorist attacks," said Scherr. "When peace is shattered, our natural tendency is to find a way to restore balance. For me, the way to restore balance is to deepen my commitment to love unconditionally. When we open the doors of our hearts, we can increase the power of peace by living with love and compassion."
Scherr questioned motivation of terrorists and their ability to kill innocent people. "There may be many factors that led to this final action, but deep down there must be a huge disconnect to self and the rest of humanity,' said Scherr. "When we feel connected to other human beings, we would do nothing harm to them."
Additional commissioner of police, south region, Krishna Prakash praised Scherr and noted that instead of being disappointed from the loss she suffered due to the terrorist attack, she decided to do something for the city.
"To make us (police) fight terrorism, she is not augmenting us with weapons but making us emotionally intelligent through her acts. She has roped in an international theatre team for this project. The idea is basically for cops to adopt a positive attitude," said Prakash.
The theatre troupe, Steps Drama, enacted the play in which they presented a real-life situation to 40 police officers from the city. "One of the scene was that an officer who is lambasted by his superior is good to his boss but vents his anger at the common man. It is this attitude that we have to change," said Robbie Swales of Steps Drama. "Emotional intelligence is our ability to engage with people and how to take better decisions during our interaction with public."
Steps Drama has performed similar plays for police departments in the UK, US, Hong Kong, China, Australia and in a few European countries. Swales said that they can plan more such sessions for the Mumbai police if depending on the funding available to them.
"Stressful working conditions and many others factors play a key role in the rude behaviour of the police towards the public. This training session will help cops to change their attitude," said an officer who attended the programme but didn't want to be named.
After the session, a few academics from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) interacted with the police officers to understand what impact the play had on them and what changes had they observed in themselves before and after the play.
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