DOS AND DON’TS: Classes in progress at the Naba Disha project. Pictures by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Arindam Chatterjee: We notice a spurt in juvenile crime. Can’t the children be given some counselling sessions to keep them away from lawlessness?

We don’t have any arrangements for counseling sessions. But we are trying to reduce the number of juvenile criminals by organising schools to make them aware of the illegal acts in which they can get entangled unwittingly. Such schools are held on the Jagaddal and Titagarh police station campuses. The project, named Naba Disha, aims at reducing the number of juvenile criminals by educating them. In this venture, our officials are working in tandem with professionals from a well-known NGO. We rope in the children of parents who have criminal antecedents and have served time in police lock-up. The project has created quite a ripple. Some criminals even urged their local police stations to let their wives be associated with the schools.