Soon, Delhi Police could knock on your door to check for school dropouts at home

The officer said the directions to the Education Department were issued by Delhi Chief Secretary Dharmendra earlier this month at a meeting of the coordination committee, which was formed by the new BJP government in Delhi to deal with home, police, and law and order matters.

“At the meeting on April 4, among other issues, two key issues — list of dropouts to be provided to Delhi Police and constitution of anti-drugs clubs and boys’ clubs in Delhi — were discussed and directions were given to the Education Department,” the officer said.

The Chief Secretary directed that an SOP be formulated by the Education Department in 15 days to enable automatic data sharing on government school dropouts with Delhi Police every six months.

“Delhi Police is already running its community policing initiative, Yuva, since 2017 after collaborating with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to prevent youth in the 17-25 age group from committing crimes and delinquent acts,” the officer said. “Skill-training courses are being provided to juvenile delinquents, victims of crime, parents facing criminal cases, those with a history of drug abuse, orphaned children, youths facing economic hardships and school dropouts.”

For the constitution of anti-drugs clubs and boys’ clubs in Delhi, an officer said, it was informed at the April 4 meeting that drafts of policies are ready with the Higher Education/Education Department. “It was directed that the Special Secretary (Home) will take a meeting in the next fortnight to deliberate on the broad contours of the policies and iron out issues,” the officer said.

In several districts, Delhi Police is running boys’ clubs to engage vulnerable juveniles in a series of activities to prevent them from getting into unlawful activities. Now, directions have been issued to open boys’ clubs in all districts and also anti-drugs clubs to create awareness among students on drug abuse.