‘Home alone senior citizens watch’ introduced by the city police in September has come under scanner
While checking the response to the emergency dial system introduced by Neelankarai police, DC found senior citizens preferred to call the police inspector or beat personnel directly for help
Chennai: Last September, the Neelankarai police introduced a novel scheme wherein home alone senior citizens in need of assistance can use the speed dial option by pressing ‘2’ on their mobile phones and the call would be connected to the police station. The sector beat officers working round the clock would attend to the caller’s concern. Eighty-one senior citizens living alone were enumerated and the number of the local police (9498100174) was stored in their phones.
Two months later, there have not been many takers for the speed dial system, police say, as most of them prefer calling the sector beat personnel visiting their areas directly in their numbers. However, the friendly approach from the beat personnel seemed to have struck the right chord with the public, at least the elderly ones.Krishna Mukherji (67) stays with her husband Alok Mukherji (74) in Baywatch farm, Vettuvankeni. The Mukherjis moved to their beachfront property in the city a decade ago and have noticed a sea change in police behaviour in the past few months. And, the behavioural change is a conscious one, explains Neelankarai Assistant Commissioner G. Sankar.
“There is a sense of inhibition in the public while interacting with police. As part of the police force we are aware of it and our first task is to break those barriers and make them believe us that we are there to help them,” Sankar said.Neelankarai inspector M.S.Bhaskar takes it a step ahead and makes it sound like a hyperbole when he says he sees senior citizens as assets to be protected than as a part of duty. “On instructions from the Commissioner S.George, our sector beat personnel are being sensitised to interact with the elderly in a friendly way,” Bhaskar said.
The Mukherjis say that their eldest son living in Bangalore is relieved that we are safe in another city. “Are we feeling safe? Absolutely,” says Mrs.Mukherji. Bhaskar takes no effort in hiding a sense of achievement when he says that he has received calls from relatives thanking the police for taking care of the elderly.The same is the response at Cholamandal Arts village in Injambakkam where artist P.S.Nandan (76) stays with his wife Sakku Bai (68) spending most of their time indoors.
If the need arises, they immediately call up the inspector or the sector beat personnel who visit their home everyday and sign on the patta book. He adds that in the recent months, the police are being more pro-active.Both the families have the numbers of sector beat personnel Vasudevan, Karunakaran and Sugumar stored in their phone. They hope they don’t get into a situation where they have to use the emergency dial system.
D.Vasudevan, a sector beat personnel says that sometimes he gets assistance calls even after his duty hours, as some tend to be more comfortable with a particular personnel. “I put calls on call divert so that my reliever attends to them after my duty hours,” he adds cheekily. The Baywatch farm residents have invited an official from the local police to take part in their association meeting to be held on Sunday (November 23). Bhaskar says that the instruction from top officers is to conduct such meetings with residents association every week to increase the rapport with the police among residents. But due to law and order situations that crop up, they could not do as much as they would like to.
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