THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If you have a senior citizen residing alone at home and are worried about how he/she could manage things on his/her own, then Kerala Police might be able to help you. The department is mulling over bringing out a handbook for senior citizens containing the contact details of not just cops, but also utility service providers such as masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and coconut tree climbers.
Thiruvananthapuram city police had already brought out its own handbook with similar details and the statewide handbook will be modelled on that. The handbook is to be prepared by collecting details from individual police station. Since the SHOs concerned will be monitoring information collection, the details will be accurate, said a source.Sources said Crime Branch IG S Sreejith is the nodal officer for the project that is to be implemented across the state simultaneously.
“The handbook will have details of police officers, police stations and hospitals. They will also have contact numbers of utility workers. The police officer concerned will be cross-checking the numbers collected and hence accuracy will be high,” said a police officer.The handbook brought out by the Thiruvananthapuram city police recently has contact numbers of sewage workers, laundrymen, centres providing home nurses, taxi drivers and workshops.
Narcotics Assistant Commissioner Sheen Tharayil, who was the nodal officer of the project in the city limits, said the project was carried out using last year’s plan fund and it was well accepted by the public.“The public response was overwhelming,” Sheen said, adding that since cops are preparing the handbook, there is a high level of trust factor among users regarding the data provided.
“Because of their trust in the police, we personally collected the contact details. When it came to people we directly contacted, we asked whether they were willing to be included in the handbook,” he said. Even in the era of internet, the handbook has relevance because many of the contact numbers of people involved in various professions are unavailable online.
“We collected it from the grass roots via local police stations,” Sheen said. In Thiruvananthapuram city limits, the handbooks were distributed to most of the senior citizens using Janamaithri police. Similarly, the plan, as of now, is to replicate that elsewhere.