Varanasi, 11 April: The police officers stationed at the Kashi Vishwanath Dham (KVD) complex in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, will now wear dhoti-kurtas to project a devotee-friendly image.
A similar experiment was conducted in 2018. According to temple authorities, male cops would wear dhotis and dupattas (shawls) same as priests, while their female counterparts will wear salwar kurtas.
Before deployment, these cops will participate in a three-day training curriculum to improve their soft-skill contact with devotees. The change is intended to improve the devotee experience while avoiding negative preconceptions linked with police outfits. In addition to the new dress, a no-touch policy will be introduced to regulate the throng. Mohit Agrawal, Commissioner of Police, stated that devotees frequently felt insulted by how the police handled crowds.
He observed that followers were more receptive of similar behaviours by temple priests.
A big difficulty occurs when devotees are forced to wait in huge lines for darshan. This causes those waiting in line to become frustrated as their darshan (prayer offering) is delayed. To solve the matter and project a nicer police image, officials have chosen a khaki-free inner sanctum, he added.
Agrawal said that they are also looking into measures to improve the image of police officers involved in crowd management and ensure a positive tourist experience. Officers will not physically move devotees or disrupt lineups while establishing a way for VIP movements. Instead, they would use ropes to guide devotees in different directions without making physical contact, he explained. While crowds were smaller in 2018 than in the previous two years following the refurbishment of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham, police personnel were accused of forcibly removing visitors from the sanctum sanctorum or its doors.
