Hathiwar Khirak, a village in Madhya Pradesh's Niwari district has not had any police case, any FIR registered in the last 39 years.
(Photo: Altered by Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint)
At a time when one hears reports of crimes, police cases, and courtroom exchanges – right from petty theft to complex cyber crimes – throughout the day, a village called Hathiwar Khirak in Madhya Pradesh's Niwari district hasn't seen a single case of police intervention in the last 39 years.
Situated around 15 km from Niwari district headquarter, the village has a population of around 250 people. Villagers say that while their crimeless existence might not be normal for the world but for them, it will not be normal if they ever had to go to a police station.
The village with no FIR in last 39 years, located in Madhya Pradesh's Niwari district.
Like hundreds of Indian villages, Hathiwar Khirak has a congregation of kutcha-pucca houses with patches of fields, lots of space, and a hustling environment.
The village falls under Prithvipur police station and the nearest cities are Jhansi on the Uttar Pradesh side and Tikamgarh on the Madhya Pradesh side.
The village has a population of around 60 families of which nearly 150 people are enlisted as voters.
The village is dissected by a pucca cemented road passing through the village. Living on one side, Manoj Kumar Gautam, a teacher by profession, says that the people of Hathiwar Khirak live in togetherness.
Villagers say they are busy living their lives and so do not want to get involved in legal issues.
Santosh Kumar further said that he got the local police station to look up the records and found that the village indeed hasn't had a case registered in the last 39 years.
The police officer said:
“Ever since I got married and came here, decades ago, I have never seen police in my village. We are innocent people minding our lives. Anyone going about their lives would not want to get involved in any police or legal issues. We don’t even think about going to the police if there’s a fight. We find solutions together,” said a woman.
Sitting on the recently cemented platform under the shade of neem and peepal trees in the middle of the village, people of Hathiwar Khirak discuss, debate, and pass down mutual directives to resolve conflicts.
Elders of the village have ensured that the conflict is resolved within the village.
Many like Malkhan say that the village panchayat and community leaders have passed on from one generation to another a sense of treating the village as one big family. And that helps strengthen the bonds between families, he adds.
Shreyansh Gautam, in his early twenties, while speaking to The Quint, mentions that the only time he had seen police was during elections.
(with inputs from Jai Prakash)
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