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OFFTRACK:
MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA
On
the Ball
A peace project
involves cricket in bridging police-public distrust
By
Himanshi Dhawan
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| HARMONY
TEAM: Commissioner of Police M.N.Singh (centre) with the D.N.Nagar
team |
It's
a Saturday afternoon and the last few stragglers make their way home from
the verdant Police Gymkhana lawns. There's little evidence of the joy,
excitement and frustration that the players witnessed in the four-day
"Cricket for Peace" tournament. Organised by the Mohalla Committee
Movement Trust (MCMT) in conjunction with the Mumbai Police, the tournament
rose out of the betrayal, distrust and wounds of the 1992 Mumbai riots.
Initiated to foster communal harmony and repair strained relations between
the police and public, the tournament is a modest success today. "Our
focus is to use cricket as a medium to encourage interaction between the
police and those from the lower socio-economic strata. They are the most
vulnerable section and need to be guided,'' says Julio Ribeiro, former
police commissioner who conceptualised the project.
To
achieve this goal, the tournament rules make it mandatory for each participating
team to include at least one policeman and two members of the Muslim community.
Begun with 30 teams in 1994, the tournament today pits 69 teams and 1,600
participants from Mumbai's 72 police stations against each other.
Gazing at
the players dotting the Islam, Parsi, Catholic and Police Gymkhana grounds,
one is reminded that the event is not about number churning, sponsored
shirts and free soft drinks alone. "It is important to enjoy playing
with each other," says Abdul Jabbar, 32, from Andheri whose team
won the award for exemplary sportsmanship. Jabbar would know-he plays
with death every day as a Bollywood stunt man for the likes of Salman
Khan and Govinda. For Jabbar, playing the game with dignity is more important
than achieving personal triumphs in terms of runs scored and wickets taken.
Constable Manoj Satarkar from D.N. Nagar, whose team won the trophy for
the fourth time this year, believes in using different means-"fighter's
spirit"-is his preferred epithet, to gain similar ends. "I support
brotherhood and cooperation but still tell my team that when we are on
the ground we play to win. This effort has brought our community closer.
What would earlier have required force can now be solved by dialogue,''
he adds.
A senior
police inspector, while admitting that acquaintance with the local lads
comes in handy, feels there is still a long way to go. "People are
indifferent. If there is a petty theft in a locality and there are 100
eyewitnesses, even now only four would come and complain. We need public
cooperation to prevent crime,'' he says. But some see progress. Says Satish
Sawant, an organiser and former police commissioner: "We have seen
in the past that force is not completely effective. As part of the police,
I know the ground realities. Things were very bad after the riots."
Sawant sees all these as part of the continuing effort to ensure that
Mumbai never sees another riot on the basis of caste, religion or creed.
Meanwhile,
post-match meetings between the police and the players, arranged by the
MCMT, are making some headway. Says Ribeiro: "We were even able to
motivate a couple of youngsters to join the police. This is a big step
considering the kind of temptation they face and the backgrounds they
come from.'' For all its success, the MCMT retains its firm stand of not
involving politicians. Maria Ishwaran, a social worker with the trust,
says, "We do not have a political agenda. We go to the houses in
our area as volunteers and try to collect funds as best we can. It would
be easier to get resources and funding with political backing but then
our purpose of helping others will be lost.''
The MCMT
runs several other projects like tailoring classes for girls, a women's
centre and computer classes for children. It is also active in tackling
the civic problems in its area. But don't expect miracles. The MCMT's
primary objective is only to resolve people's socio-economic problems
through personal efforts. As the speeches end and the "Cricket for
Peace" winners proudly hold high the shield, it is anyone's guess
whether there is an echo in their hearts, not just of the victory shout
but also of the message of hope for Mumbai.
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