22 September 2012
Avaaz begins to get it
22 August 2012
Good News
Good News
I decided to copy this news article into a post, as I don't know how long the link to the original article will be good. Go here to find out more about The Way To Happiness.
THE HINDU – ONLINE EDITION – NEW DELHI, June 28, 2012
Nipping the evil in the bud – the happy way
Bindu Shajan Perappadan
“Catch them young and turn them around” is the motto being followed by the Delhi Police which has brought in an innovative early intervention programme titled ‘Way to Happiness’ to help juveniles stay away from crime.
“The Way to Happiness Foundation, India, has been helping us for the past two months in Delhi by conducting intervention and motivational courses for people in the JJ clusters encouraging them, especially children, to lead a happy, crime-free life. The Foundation had approached us with the proposal to conduct the course after getting encouraging results from other parts of the world where their programmes helped reduce crime rate,” said Inspector S.S. Malhan of Delhi Police’s Special Unit For Women and Children.
“Dealing with children from the lower strata of society who are exposed to crime at a very early age needs intensive, consistent and tailor-made intervention. We feel this programme brings that along. We also realised that when encouraged to lead a crime-free life as a group not just children but also adults get influenced. The programme was also conducted for the Delhi Police personnel who benefitted from it and that was when the authorities realised that the general public, especially children, would do well to be exposed to this programme,” added Inspector Malhan.
Prevention better than punishing
Stating that prevention is better that punishing and trying to change a child already involved in crime, Mr. Malhan said: “We are planning a phase-wise intervention programme in all the JJ clusters and crime-prone areas in the Capital first. The course consists of motivational talks and distribution of free booklets containing 21-points on leading a happy life.”
“Children living on the streets in Delhi are often exposed to various forms of abuse and also get embroiled in crime. As per a report ‘Surviving the Streets’ published last year there were 50,000 children on the streets in Delhi and it was found that one of the major threats that street children experienced was abuse. Courses like the Way to Happiness programme should be extended to these children to help them speak up and cope with the abuse and also report it,” said Ashok Singh Jha of the Dr. A. V. Baliga Memorial Trust, an organisation working for women and children welfare.
