85% of people arrested for crime are first-timers: Delhi Police chief

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Sunday said that of all the people arrested for various crimes every year in the national capital, 85 per cent are first-time offenders.

"Every year, over 1.5 lakh people are arrested by Delhi Police for various crimes and more than 85 per cent of the arrested persons are first-timers, while only 10-15 per cent are repeat offenders," he said while inaugurating "Unnati", an e-Learning platform.

Asthana also said that community policing initiatives like YUVA and Unnati aim that these 85 per cent do not fall in the web of crime.

"Such people should get a chance to take a fresh shot at life and join the mainstream as builders of society," he stressed.

The Delhi Police chief also advised the youngsters among the audience to stay away from drugs, which, he said are root cause of most of the crimes.

Unnati is an initiative of the Southwest district police under flagship scheme YUVA to help the youth, specifically from weaker sections of the society and school dropouts, who get deprived of mainstream learning process, get education, and skills to realise their dreams of secure future.

This Unnati scheme would be replicated in other districts of Delhi under PPP model and with the help of YUVA stakeholders, Asthana added

Through the Unnati e-learning platform, youngsters are inspired to enrol for the programme of their choice. The portal has been designed in a very simple way so that anyone can learn from anywhere through a laptop, desktop, tablet or simply a mobile phone. It provides training and side-by-side placement to trainees. The features of this platform comprise counselling, training and placement. It is an effective open learning system and live online classes is its speciality. The courses offered include digital literacy comprising basic computer courses, typing training, preparatory courses for competitive exams, sports courses etc.

An "Unnati" placement cell has also been set up, which would help in getting these trained youth a job.