NE incubation centre in New Delhi

People from the Northeast, scared of racial abuse in New Delhi, will soon have a centre to prepare them for life in the national capital.

Helping Hands, an NGO led by inspector general of police Robin Hibu, is gearing up to set up a 'Northeast Incubation Centre' in New Delhi to provide life skills training including a crash course on Hindi speaking and martial arts training to counter sexual violence.

Hibu is now a joint commissioner at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

ONGC, an oil PSU, on Saturday handed over a cheque of Rs. 2.25 lakh to the NGO in New Delhi as first installment for setting up of the centre.

"Lack of knowledge about New Delhi and city life is one of the reasons of many Northeasterners falling victim of racial abuse, harassment and frauds. So we want to equip them with basic life skills before they land up in campuses, jobs or in businesses," Hibu said.

Hibu, an IPS officer hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, had served as the nodal officer of the special Delhi police unit for Northeast people.

The unit was constituted in February 2015 following the death of Arunachal Pradesh teenager Nido Tania in a hate crime in 2014.

Hibu and a few others had formed the NGO to help people from the region and had gradually formed a network of people helping victims of crime from the Northeast in the metros.

"Our training will include lectures by lawyers on sexual harassment at work places, on labour laws, city distress/ emergency redressal apparatus by police and doctors, a 15-days crash course on spoken Hindi, self defence classes for young women by Vishal Jaiswal, a black belt, know your cities by tourist operators and others," Hibu said.

Hibu said that more than seven-lakh people from the Northeast live in New Delhi for education and work but many face harassment since they are culturally different.

The NGO has helped them get blood during health emergencies, arranged concessional treatments, helped in last rites of their dear ones, enrollment in electoral rolls, helped in recruitment, beside others.