Around 60 young men and women have been training at a ramshackle school in the Shivaji Nagar slums in Govandi for a year now.
Around 60 young men and women have been training at a ramshackle school in the Shivaji Nagar slums in Govandi for a year now to become constables in the Mumbai police.
The school’s stone-strewn ground is training ground for practising the 5-kilometre run, the 100-metre dash and the long jump — the components of the physical test to select police constables.
For two hours daily in the evening, volunteers of the local mohalla committees teach the police aspirants written Marathi and discuss current affairs, apart from the athletic training.
Almost all the candidates are Muslims and Dalits, beneficiaries of a project by community groups, Magsaysay award winner Jockin Arputham and Mumbai police that aims to increase the representation of religious minorities and backward castes in the city police.
This month, the state police department advertised openings for 16,900 posts of constables, including around 3,500 in Mumbai. The volunteers are hoping that atleast a dozen candidates will make it.
It took them a lot of visits in the area to convince families to allow young undergraduates, especially women, to consider jobs in the police. “Since we train the candidates free of cost, there was a lot of suspicion about what we were doing,” said Parveen Shaikh, a member of the mohalla committee.
Yunus Mukadam, another member said that many Muslim youngsters did not want to apply because they were sceptical whether they would be selected. “But if a large number of Muslims take part in the selection, a few will be selected,” said Mukadam.
The misgiving among aspirants is voiced by Nisar Patel, a 19-year old second year BCom student. Patel has studied in a Marathi-language school and is confident about clearing the exams. “But Muslim students do not apply for a policeman’s job because they feel their applications will be ignored,” said Patel.
ML Sonkavde, a retired college lecturer teaching the students how to write essays in Marathi said, “Nearly 70% are Muslims who are not very fluent in Marathi.”
Arputham said, “These young people are idealistic and want to join the police force to serve society.”
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