The Tamil Nadu Police told the Madurai bench of the court that the Police Well-Being Programme had been extended for another year.
Published Aug 11, 2022 | 4:50 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 11, 2022 | 6:46 PM
Tamil Nadu Police has identified around 4,500 of its personnel suffering for anxiety issues. (Representative Image/ Supplied)
The Tamil Nadu Police on Wednesday, 10 August, informed the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court that 4,484 police personnel in the state have been identified with high anxiety levels, and that they are being provided with counselling or medical treatment at various government hospitals.
The Madurai bench, while hearing the suo motu case on 21 July in connection with the sensational custodial deaths of P Jeyaraj and his son Bennix in Sathanakulam of the Tuticorin district, directed the state government to submit a report on the status of the Police Well-being Programme after it was mentioned in court that the programme had gone into cold storage.
That was the report submitted by the police in court on Wednesday, in which it gave the data about anxiety among its personnel.
The Police Well-Being Programme in Tamil Nadu was being carried out by the state government in collaboration with the Bengaluru-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for conducting the programme was signed with NIMHANS with the objective of developing a comprehensive wellness programme, building skills of police personnel to mitigate the effects of stress with the help of trainers, and institutionalising the wellness programme within the regular training programme.
The police claimed in the status report, accessed by South First, that the training period for some could not be fit within the schedule as field-level training was not conducted from February 2020 to October 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report further mentioned that with the three-year validity of the MoU getting lapsed, it was renewed in September 2021 for a period of another one year, with an additional payment of ₹19.16 lakh to NIMHANS.
This was done in compliance with the orders issued by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court to the state government to continue with the programme for a period of five years.
“The extended period is valid up to 19 September, 2022, and will be renewed for a period of one more year from September 2022 to complete the training,” the police department mentioned in the status report.
In addition to this, the police also informed the court that out of the total sum of ₹10 crore allotted for the programme, ₹6.79 crore has already been spent.
The state government has sanctioned a further ₹61.51 lakh to continue the training programme for the remaining police personnel.
According to the status report, 462 master trainers — 254 police officers and 208 private counsellors from schools of social work and psychology — underwent training of trainers in 12 consecutive batches at NIMHANS for a period of five days in October 2018.
The field training commenced in November 2018, and as of date, 98,531 police personnel have been trained. “Remaining are yet to be trained, of which 8373 of them belong to Chennai City, [sic]” read the status report.
As part of the second phase of the programme, an online diploma course in “psychological well-being” was being conducted by NIMHANS for 246 master trainers — 115 police officials and 131 private counsellors — from October 2021.
Of these, 41 police master trainers have completed the diploma course and the remaining 205 are yet to be trained.
The Tamil Nadu Police also apprised the court about another government order to conduct training to enhance the interpersonal relationship of the police with the public by organising a “unique training programme from the rank of constable to an inspector on various topics”.
The course syllabus for this training programme would cover subjects like personality development, emotional management, anger management, holistic well-being, interpersonal relationships, group therapy, and empathy development.
With the state government submitting a status report about the police wellness programme, the Madurai bench on Wednesday closed all suo motu proceedings initiated by it in the Sathankulam custodial deaths case. The trial in the case is underway.
The Madurai bench, while hearing the Sathankulam custodial deaths case observed that only through wellbeing programmes could violent propensities in individuals be stymied.
“On the one hand, those responsible for the death of Bennix and Jeyaraj should not go scot-free, and on the other hand, we cannot afford to lose any more Bennixes and Jeyarajes to violence,” the court noted while directing the government to continue with the police wellness programme.
