Social media is a powerful medium for outreach. It helps to connect to maximum people at one go to create awareness on important issues. Recently, a Twitter post of constable Sachin Kaushik went viral. It was an awareness video on following traffic rules, especially wearing helmet. But, what made the video very interesting was the humour element in it.
This is not the first time that Sachin Kaushik’s social media post has gone viral. He is a social media influencer who helps thousandsthrough public awareness posts. His police journey started in 2011, but his journey on social media, that has brought popularity for him, started in 2015.
Today, he gives hopes to people and has single-handedly contributed towards improving the image of the police. He started the initiative named ‘Police Chhavi Sudhar: Ek Muhim’ (Police Image Reform: A Campaign) on various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. He has been running this campaign since 2014. For his tireless work, he was awarded the DGP Gold Medal on Republic Day.
Indian Masterminds interacted with Mr. Kaushik, who is posted in IG range, Agra office, as constable, and got to know more about his social media journey, through which, he has been extending help in many forms to people.
THE YAMRAJ VIDEO
Coming back to the recent video that was shared by him on Twitter, it is from Atal Chowk, Hazratganj, Lucknow. It showed a policeman roaming around with a man dressed like Yamraj (the Hindu God of death and justice). Both of them were seen stopping the motorbike riders without helmets, and ‘Yamraj’ wittingly preaching them about traffic rules and regulations. ‘Yamraj’ says to one of the men: “Why did you not wear a helmet?” Man replies: “I forgot.” Yamraj then says: “This is not good. You have to come with me, today is your last day.” The man replies: “It is an emergency.” Yamraj says now: “That is why I am saying, here is emergency, too. I will take you up to direct emergency, trust me. People without helmet come with me and travel directly to emergency. Now, you have to come with me.” To this, the man pleaded and said “sorry” for his act. People around them laughed, but the message was conveyed!
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Kaushik said, “By sharing this video, I was trying to convince people to follow traffic rules. If we convey our message with any interesting read or video, then, people pay much more attention. That is why the video went viral. I always try to ensure that people should not view us, police, negatively. Our humanitarian angle should also be looked upon. We also do things beyond our call of duty. So, my aim is to show the good work of police to the common people.”
ABOUT SACHIN KAUSHIK
Sachin Kumar Kaushik hails from Gorai village of Iglas in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. He is from the 2011 batch. He has done MA in Political Science. His father is a farmer and mother is homemaker. He has two brothers and two sisters.
He was fluent in English and that is why he got selected to the tourism police station in Agra. His journey of helping people and becoming a social media star started in 2014, from this Agra police station. Being in the tourism police station, he was able to help many foreigners. Since then, he has been trying to change the mindset of the people towards the police.
He said, “In 2015, a Portuguese female tourist got separated from her team. She did not know Hindi and English. I talked to the woman through Google Translator and took her to her team.” For this, he was honoured, too.
He was awarded the DGP Gold Medal on Republic Day. in 2020, he got the DGP Silver Medal for taking immediate action on the tweet of a woman passenger. In 2017, he was transferred to Agra GRP.
POLICE IMAGE REFORM PAGE
Mr. Kaushik created a Facebook page on social media named ‘Police Image Reform: A Campaign’. This page has more than 1.10 lakhs followers. His Twitter account has nearly 8 thousand followers. On the Facebook page, he started writing the good work done of the police. Apart from this, he also does the work of fact check. In the recent past, a video of a Lucknow inspector waving a pistol had surfaced on social media. When he fact-checked the video, it was found that it belonged to a theatre artist.
He is also running blogs, where he shares the stories of police.(https://copsachinkaushik.blogspot.com/) He said, “There are many policemen like me who is doing good work and helping people. So I thought, that their story should come to the people and the police image should be changed. That is why I created the page and accounts on social media.”
HELPING HAND
When he was in the media cell of GRP, he responded to tweets for help and tried to solve the problems of people. He said, “In 2018, a female patient needed oxygen cylinder. I got the cylinder delivered to the moving train.”
Apart from this, in the lockdown during the first wave of Corona, he had provided medicines and other necessities to those seeking help on social media. He also donated his salary to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. Then, in the second wave, He along with other police officers across the country provided medicines, ration and other necessities to those seeking help on social media.
He also provides blood to the needy ones,and counselling, too. He has helped a person who was planning to commit suicide. Nowadays, people tag him on social media posts for help and he tries to help them to the best of his capacities. Perhaps, that is why, he is the social media star of UP Police – a most loved constable!
He said, “People tries to see only one face of police. There is another face, too. The humane face. We do our work honestly and are ready to help people. Due to the mistakes of a few of our men, the honest and hard working policemen do not get their share of respect. My only aim is to bring to the public the face of the police which is lost somewhere in this haze.”
