Guiding Force: During the ongoing Kumbh Mela police forces have rendered their services with care and diligence, reports P.S. Chauhan

Indian police forces are better known for their strictness and our cops are infamous for misusing their uniform. Not to mention their highhanded attitude. However, a visit to Kumbh will surely change your perception towards Indian police forces. This time they have emerged as a guard and a true guide. Don't believe yet! Then read the following incidents. Carrying a small bundle of clothes, 75-year-old Babli of Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, looked around pitiably, as she struggled to take a dip in the Ganga on the pious occasion of Chaitra Poornima. She was completely lost amidst the hordes of devotees. Seeing her, Anand Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand police posted there on Mela duty promptly lent a helping hand and guided her through. Rakesh Bhaiyya from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, suffering from fever, wandered in Sector-O of the Bairagi Camp of Kumbh Nagar. He did not know which way to go and turned to constable S. Sarayan of the ITBP. The latter took him to the nearby health dispensary. "It would have been really difficult for me to take snan without police help," says physically challenged Raj Shekhawat of Udaipur, with a smile on his face. There are numerous such examples, which have brought this human face of the security personnel to the fore and eventually they have impressed the devotees.

However, things looked difficult when Kumbh began in January. Everyone, including police and civil administration, was worried. It was indeed a challenge for a small state like Uttarakhand to stage such a mega event, successfully. Also, incidents like stampedes and violent clashes had occurred in the past fairs as well. As a matter of fact during Ardh Kumbh in 2004 an incident of eve teasing allegedly by a police constable and subsequent unruly behaviour of the police resulted in violent clashes between the locals and the police. In fact, one businessman was killed in that firing and curfew had to be imposed in the city. But it seems that police did learn its lesson from their past experiences. As this time, they are seen as a facilitator and not merely as controller or mentor.

More than 16,000 security personnel, belonging to 16 types of forces, including the civil police, the P.A.C., the C.R.P.F., the B.S.F., the I.T.B.P., the R.A.F., the C.I.S.F. and the Jal police have been pressed into service. The Kumbh mela D.I.G., Alok Sharma admits that it was really a difficult task to co-ordinate diverse forces with different mindsets. To make them work as a team all security forces were put under four weeks training.

Mock drills at various places to train the security personnel so that they control any sort of eventuality were also conducted. Also, nearly 5,000 security personnel, who were chiefly responsible for crowd management at different places, were taken around the city to acquaint them with the important landmarks in the mela area, which are frequented by the pilgrims.

Besides that, training sessions were organized and experts from various fields delivered lectures and interacted with the jawans so that they can deal with all sorts of pilgrims with ease. "The police forces mostly deal with the crimes and lawbreakers. But here it was a different situation. The pilgrims cannot be treated as criminals. We endeavoured to prepare our forces for a different role and trained them to be patient and polite," says Ajay Joshi, the S.P. (traffic) Kumbh Mela. Shweta Chaubey, who supervises traffic and crowd management in the core area, says that they have instructed their units to communicate with the pilgrims regularly to establish a rapport with them and win their confidence.

The police administration also showed remarkable foresight in involving the various segments of society, such as the sant community, the Ganga Sabha, the Vyapar Mandal and the social organizations and arranged meetings of the prominent citizens with the police personnel posted in that locality so that their help can come handy in a difficult situation.

So far nine snans of the Kumbh, including three Shahi Snans, have been held and the security personnel have not only provided an effective security cover in the mela area but also acted as friends and guides to the hordes of devotees. No wonder so far all has gone as per the plans. Thus, it is expected that there would be no untoward incident till Kumbh lasts. "Unlike past this time police have been behaving in a very pleasant manner. It is indeed a positive change. It makes things easy for the pilgrims as many of them do not know much about the place," says Abhijeet Bhattacharya of Kolkata, who has visited the last three Kumbhs at Haridwar. True, courtesy combined with firmness pays rich dividends.