Robin Hibu- a Gandhian IPS officer from Delhi Police and a man with a golden heart standing tall for India
New Delhi, March 21
We associate policing with power and toughness however we have a simple 'Gandhian' IPS officer Robin Hibu, among the star officers of Indian Police Services in the country, who has written his own story with a golden pen.
Additional DGP, Robin Hibu stands tall with his achievements and most importantly his heart of gold.
The first IPS officer from Arunachal Pradesh of the AGMUT 1993 batch and Special Commissioner in Delhi Police, Robin Hibu is a messiah for numerous natives of North East across the world.
In an exclusive interview with BW PoliceWorld, Special Commissioner, Delhi Police, Robin Hibu speaks about his journey from Hong, a small village of Arunachal Pradesh to the coveted post of IPS and his heart that beats for his initiative “Helping Hands”- a unique movement ever started for the North East citizens.
A Gandhian by thoughts and deeds, Officer Robin Hibu is probably the only officer who has donated his own parental house in Arunachal Pradesh that runs as a community centre with library, medical facilities and more. Robin Hibu not only received his education in a Gandhian school but his love for Gandhi reflects in his everyday life too.
1) You are the first IPS officer of Arunachal Pradesh. You studied in Kasturba Gandhi School and got inspired by principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Tell us about your journey.
I studied in a small school made by Mahatma Gandhi’s followers after Gandhi visited Arunachal Pradesh in the pre independence era. I had a teacher, a young woman who gave up her personal life, never married and dedicated herself only to the work of educating children. This was the only school we had in Hong. I grew up seeing her and principles of Gandhi running through my blood. I still remember there was an outbreak of plague and many were killed. This teacher used to cover herself with saris and duppattas and took care of hundreds of children, bathed them and feed them. This incident taught me that whatever I become in my life, I will ensure service as my first and last motto. After finishing my education, I moved to Delhi for further studies and joined the IPS. After becoming an IPS officer, I understood that police has power and if that power is used to uplift others, you are the most powerful person in the world.
2) Your initiative of Helping Hands is a noble platform to aide North Eastern citizens in distress. What inspired you to start this initiative?
Most of the citizens from North Eastern states grow up in their tribes and villages which are still on the path of progress. The kids move out to other parts of the country or abroad for education and jobs. As a migrant to another city, I noticed how North Eastern were struggling for aide. There are many kids from poor families who don’t have money for studies and coaching. There are many who haven’t even seen a city life. We decided to empower poor and vulnerable youth from North East with scholarships, school education to orphans, special scholarships for meritorious students, counselling to youth on city life, learning Hindi and other languages. We also provide legal aide poor and regularly bring out awareness campaigns on social media forums on crimes, labour laws, harassment, SOS reach out mechanism.
I wanted to empower the girls in North East so we started special programmes from self defence learning to assistance in specialized education. The girls are vulnerable to city life so counselling is given to them on the safety, career and other aspects. North East borders with countries like China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the border villages need attention. We started medical camps and medical centres where basic healthcare is provided.
3) Helping Hands has special initiatives for the orphans, destitute and children from poor families. How do you help them?
We have a segment that we named as ‘Aakhri Aahuti’ for those who have no one in this world. We cremate and bury the dead bodies of the orphans. My only motto here is to give respect to the departed in the last lap of his or her life when he received no respect throughout his life. Hundreds of deceased have been cremated and buries in last five to six years who had no families. I specially ensure that the orphan children are not left stranded. They are admitted to schools, colleges and given all aide they require for their life. There is a North East Orphan Girls Scholarship that aides students.
4) Tell us more about the Helping Hands scholarships and aide to the students.
As an IPS officer who struggled his way to UPSC, I wanted to ensure that the students from North East receive best education as much as I can do for them. Under Helping Hands we initiated UPSC Scholarships under CSR of ALS Institute & Vajiram IAS institute. We have IIT/NEET Scholarship under CSR Avanti Institute. North East Orphan Scholarship runs under CSR of Budhiraja &Co. We have NE Delhi & NCR Mridul Gogoi Scholarship for poor meritorious undergraduates. We have special North East girls Commerce undergraduate scholarships. More 300 students have received scholarships and admission to study. More than 50 promising scholarships have been provided to the students.
5) You donated your own house for to build a community centre for the citizens in Arunachal Pradesh. Tell us about this community centre?
The Hong village where I grew up borders with China. I started by building a library eight kilometers away from the border village. I donated my own house in Hong where the community centre is being built. We have arranged for the best books on all subjects and information. There are many kids in the village who have no access to books and libraries. After the library got functional, we decided to start a healthcare centre there for basic health care. The villagers have to travel for at least 80 to 100 kilometers for basic checkups and medicines. The healthcare centre has been named as Bhagat Singh Health Clinic. The centre has 122 volunteers with one para medic. I arranged a system with the Indian Railways where specialized medicines that are not available in Arunachal are sent from Delhi through Rajdhani Express. The Indian Railways also extended their hand and started delivering medicines without any cost. Seeing this work, now ONGC has come forward to reconstruct that same centre into a big building which will have modernized library, health care centre and a community centre with computers and other gadgets for youth to learn and grow. We are going to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the community centre to mark our respect to his work in Arunachal Pradesh.
6) You must have faced challenges when you started Helping Hands. Now, you have the government, railways and corporates supporting this movement. How does it feel to see the success of this initiative?
When I started this initiative, I used to worry how I would help so many people. I used to get calls after calls for help. I started donating money from my own salary and it’s been years that I still donate half my salary in Helping Hands. Initially, it was a lonely road but gradually many started walking along with me. People from various professions extended their hands without even asking them to donate or help us. Under the CSR programmes, AIIMS started providing blood bank and healthcare facilities, medical concessions, free cremation and burials, funds for last rites, airlines like Indigo and Vistara started providing free dead body coffin transportation to NE states, Max Heatlhcare, Fortis, Medanta, Avanti and more joined to provide healthcare. Educational institutes like Aakash Institute and Vajiram started providing scholarships and training.
I donate blood regularly in the hospitals and encourage all volunteers to do so. Any North Eastern who has met with an accident or in distress gets immediate help, blood and medical facility through our volunteers. Many citizens joined us as volunteers and doing incredible work in their respective cities and districts.
7) You are senior officer in Delhi Police and have been into policing since more than 25 years. How do you balance policing and this round the clock work of Helping Hands?
I follow a verse from Bhagwat Geeta that says, “Karmanyevadhikaraste Ma Phalesu Kadacana Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani. I follow this Shlok thoroughly. As a police officer my duty is to work for the people and I did that as a capacity of all the appointments I received in Delhi Police and Arunachal Pradesh. I also served in the United Nations Police in 1998-99 in Bosnia and Kosovo (Europe). During my tenure with UN Police, I learnt how policing across the world is about aiding people more than anything else. People across the world are afflicted with war, economy, lack of education, employment and need aide in some or the other form. Policing is a profession that gives people security and it a police officer’s job to ensure safety of every citizen.
I worked relentlessly towards Karma. I see both policing and Helping Hands as Karma and Seva so the work goes on smoothly maintaining the discipline and virtues of the police department.
8) Your first biography ‘Cop with a golden heart- Robin Hibu’ has released. The book has released in India, UK and USA. Your thoughts on this.
I am overwhelmed and feel extreme level of gratitude for this. Helping Hands was a thought in my mind to aide my own people. I didn’t know it will attain this much success and bring such significant growth in the lives of hundreds of NE citizens. The writer Thanmi Khamrang approached me and said he wants to write my biography. He took immense efforts to relive my life and write this book. I am grateful to him that he could show the humanitarian work that will inspire others to work for our country.
Very few know that out of all his humanitarian works, he is personally attached to a young child who is specially abled and used to message him every day for financial help. The girl comes from the extremely poor family and had no means of survival. She has been adopted by Hibu as his daughter. Hibu says that it is his dream to see her as the first specially abled IAS officer to be appointed in this country.
Robin Hibu was awarded with President of India Police Medal for Distinguished Services and Meritorious Services in 2017 and 2010 respectively.
He also received UN Peace Medal for Meritorious Service in Bosnia (1998) and UN Peace Medal for Distinguished Services in Kosovo (1999). He was awarded with. He has received more than 15 civil awards for social services.
An alumni of JNU, Robin Hibu used to walk bare boot to school in Arunachal Pradesh and struggled through his young days in Delhi while studying in JNU. Known as the officer with a golden heart, Robin Hibu is indeed standing tall for India as mentioned in the title of the book, Robin Hibu-Standing tall for India.
