The importance of education and exposure to outside can be best appreciated by a person who hasn’t received it. A similar case is with an IPS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre who came from a farmer’s family in Rajasthan and did not receive enough facilities during his childhood. Because of this, he had to look for various other options to grow.
Now that he has experienced it himself after being brought up by his uneducated parent, he wants to bring a change in the society and provide education and other activities to the youth who mostly get carried away with the Maoist ideology.
The person we are referring to is 2003-batch IPS officer Mr Ratan Lal Dangi. He has held several key positions in the most Maoist-dominated places in Chhattisgarh and has seen the Naxalite insurgency from close quarters over these 16 years of his service in the state.
EARLY STRUGGLES
Mr. Dangi was born in a small village of Parbastar `tehsil’ in the Nagaur district of Rajasthan. In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, he said “Both my parents were uneducated and it was very difficult for me to get access to good education facilities. Despite that, I was the topper of my school. After completing my 12th grade in science and mathematics, I did not have any option to study more because of various constraints. Therefore, I started working straight after completing my schooling when I was just 19 years old.”
After completing a teacher training course, Mr. Dangi got his first job as a teacher, when he was 19, to make his ends meet. He taught for a period of six years and then got into the state police service as an Inspector. He soon became a `Tehsildar’ but that was not what he wanted for the rest of his life. He had an aim to become a civil servant and that dream became a reality in 2003 when he cleared the UPSC exam to become an IPS officer. He was 30 when he got into the civil services.
EXPERIENCE DURING SERVICE
Mr. Ratan Lal Dangi, who is currently serving as the Inspector General of Police (Bilaspur range) was allotted the Chhattisgarh cadre and was posted at Kanker district, Bastar in 2005.
“At that time when I got posted at SP Bijapur, it was a `gram panchayat’. If we see it from the developmental point of view, there were no facilities of transportation, mobile phones, education etc. at that time. I was the first officer who was staying with my whole family in a Maoist stronghold area, at a time when violence was at its peak,” he told Indian Masterminds.
“My children used to study in the same school where the children of tribal families were studying. During these years, while serving in places like Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, and Rajnandgaon etc, I analyzed that these Maoists were mostly targeting the younger generation and influencing them with their ideology. As I have worked in lower positions (Tehsildar and Inspector) before in Rajasthan, I thought to counter this we have to connect with the people directly,” he added.
This is when the IPS officer came up with a campaign called ‘Guide the Youth, Grow the Nation’, to build a bridge with the youth and to divert their minds towards more productive things like education, sports, fitness etc.
GUIDING THE YOUTH
By spreading philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Maulana Azad and others, Mr Dangi tried to influence the tribal youth with good thoughts and asked them to make such legends their ideals. He not only focused on the youth but also their parents about the things which are accepted in the nation and the society and also discussed about the welfare of their families.
He said, “We launched this campaign in 2017 with a vision to connect with the youth and take them to the right direction. While interacting with them, we also tried to empower them and tried to train them for various army and police recruitments. The training was started at police station level for pre-induction and from physical training to written exam guidance, everything was provided.”
As Mr. Dangi’s job was not specified to only one location, he did not lose touch with the youth he got connected during his service at various places in the state. With the use of technology, he connected with them on various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook etc.
Mr Dangi gained thousands of followers within not time as the youth were also inspired by him. He said, “For the past one and a half year there hasn’t been a single day when I have not posted a picture or video while doing some fitness activity. Many people have also approached me by saying that they have gained a lot while following me.”
Apart from this, Mr Dangi has also contributed his bit to his place of origin. He has started five libraries at his district in Rajasthan where books related to competitive exams etc. are provided to the students.
