Making sense of touch
MADHYA PRADESH: In an era marked by rising sexual offences against women and children, especially girls, a traffic police subedar Yogesh Singh Rajput in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district is making a difference.
He is inspiring schoolchildren by educating them about the concept of good and bad touch through his innovative creation - a robotic doll.
Lending voice to the 40-yearold Yogesh Singh Rajput’s initiative is his 10-year-old daughter Anvi Rajput.
Since last month, Yogesh has been holding sessions in schools (particularly girl schools) where with the help of the 2.5 ft mannequinturned- robotic doll depicting a small girl, he has been teaching the students about good touch and bad touch.
During these sessions, the students touch different parts of the doll’s body, which prompts the robot to respond with voice messages such as “Bad touch yahan mat chuvo (bad touch, don’t touch here)” and “Good Touch, Thank You.”
Yogesh not only educates the students about different types of touches, but also encourages them to protest bad touch. He emphasizes the importance of reporting any incidents: “If something happens at school, inform your teachers immediately; otherwise, tell your parents promptly.
This will ensure that immediate action is taken against the offender and help prevent future occurrences with other students,” he reiterates in every session.
Importantly, the voice to the robotic doll has been provided by none other than his elder daughter Anvi, who is a fifth-grade student at Maharishi Vidya Mandir school of Mandla. This school is one of the institutions where the local traffic officer has already conducted sessions.
“Around a month and a half ago, it was Anvi (the elder of my two daughters) who mooted the idea of creating a doll which can educate the children about good touch and bad touch. She was inspired after watching a programme where the CM Dr Mohan Yadav discussed the issue of safety and security of children. However, the challenge was how to create a robot doll,” Yogesh explained.
After spending several days searching YouTube for ideas, he borrowed an old mannequin from a garment shop. With the help of local mechanics and technicians, he transformed it into a good touch-bad touch robot doll using sensors and other tools, completing the project in just 15 days.
The robot doll, which is primarily made out of used material, costs less than Rs 2000.
For the past month, Yogesh Singh Rajput, a traffic police subedar, has been dedicating his time outside of duty hours to hold educational sessions in schools, including CM Rise School and Maharishi Vidya Mandir, located in the tribal-dominated Mandla district.
“This is a remarkable initiative by Yogesh Singh Rajput, who is educating students about the concepts of good touch and bad touch. He is also guiding them on how to report inappropriate behavior to their teachers and parents in a timely manner. I strongly believe that the school education department should take inspiration from Yogesh’s efforts and implement similar programs on a larger scale to reach as many students as possible, ensuring their safety,” said Dr. Upendra Shukla, the principal of Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Mandla district.
Many other schools in the tribal-dominated district are now requesting the Mandla district police superintendent to hold similar sessions with the robot doll in their schools.
Yogesh’s educational initiative has received praise from the IG-Balaghat Range, Sanjay Kumar, who also awarded a cash reward to the traffic subedar for the exemplary efforts in promoting children safety.
Encouraged by the positive outcome and growing interest of students at the interactive sessions held by Yogesh along with his colleagues, the Mandla district SP, Rajat Saklecha, has decided to take this initiative all across the district in an organized manner.
“We’re creating more such dolls and will implement this effort all across the district under the already established campaign aimed at educating school children about their safety. To enhance their effectiveness, we are also including female constables,” Saklecha added. But the good touchbad touch teacher robot doll is not the first such innovative model created by Yogesh.
The subedar who has been posted in Mandla district since 2020, had in 2022, come up with a 360 degrees rotating robot to teach commoners about road traffic signals.
“Mandla is a tribal-dominated district and there is just one road crossing in the city, which has traffic signals. Most of the people who come from rural backgrounds don’t know much about traffic signals.
Owing to it only, I had created a rotating robot with green and red lights out of scrap, which was first installed for a couple of days at the road crossing and then used to create traffic awareness among school children through interactive sessions in schools,”Yogesh recalled.
The traffic signal robot was inspired by a larger initiative in Indore, where a full-fledged 14-foot-tall robot was directing traffic. Yogesh was posted in Indore from 2017 to 2020, which influenced this innovative project.