Can you imagine Khakhi clad police men in the role of teachers, explaining simple maths or making kids learn their first alphabets?

The police men in a village in Barmer have a different story to tell as they successfully run a school for the poor and underprivileged children of the area.

In Ramsar village of Barmer district in Rajasthan, cops not only run a school but also take time off from their duty to take a class or two.

The children are no longer afraid of them and they are now icons of respect in the region in their new role.

The small school in the desert region was started in April last year at the initiative of the then Barmer SP Umesh Chandra Dutt. Started with a meagre strength of about 20 students, police ki pathshala now has over 125 students.

The students are mainly from the Mangniar community, who are born folk singers.

Despite the presence of government schools in Ramsar, access to education was somehow limited among the Mangniar community.

Mr Dutt motivated them to join the school and gradually, the idea clicked with the villagers, according to SHO Gulab Singh Rahore.

Expenses
The school is run in the premises of a community hall of the village and voluntary agencies bear the expenses of infrastructure, books and salary of two teachers employed in the school. The present SP Nitindeep Bangan is also taking interest to carry on the tradition started by his predecessor.

Ramsar police station has a staff of 20 and all of them take time off from their duty to teach a lesson or two, Rathore told Deccan Herald over the phone.

Bond with poor
The school has helped in strengthening a bond of learning with the poor and deprived sections of society, who were cut off from the world of education, he said.

A similar experiment was also carried out in the flood-hit Malwa village of Barmer which was totally indundated in the flash-floods of 2006, Mr Dutt, who is now SP in Nagaur said. It was a camp school run with the name of “Apna School” but was later closed when alternative arrangement was made for the flood-affected families.