With the threat of COVID-19 looming over, on 25th March 2020, 1.3 billion Indians went under lockdown with just a 4 hours’ notice. Social distancing and staying home became the need of the hour and would be helpful only if every citizen abided by it.
But to enforce the toughest lockdown, India had one of the most understaffed police forces in the world- With 1 policeman per 1000 people, making it physically impossible for them to ensure that every single one of the 1.3 bn citizen stayed home.
The capital of Maharashtra, Mumbai is home to 20 mn citizens, from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. One of Mumbai’s biggest challenges is its high population density- 20,634 people per square kilometer, making it a hotbed for viruses like COVID-19 and the worst hit city in India. Compare this to the population density of New York City, which was the worst hit city by COVID-19 in USA, - 10,431 per square kilometer.
Considering the high risk of COVID-19 being faced by Mumbai’s citizens, it was all the more essential that they adhered to the lockdown norms. However it can get daunting to physically ensure every citizen stays put inside their homes. Hence the Mumbai Police felt the need to create a behavior change and awareness initiative campaign that urged every citizen of Mumbai to take responsibility for each member of their family.
The clarion call "Main bhi Mumbai Police" (I Am Mumbai Police) was created, where citizens were empowered to think of themselves as an extension of the Mumbai Police and took on the duty of ensuring that their family members stayed home and did not allow them to step out of the house for any reasons, thus keeping them safe from any infection.
The campaign drove major national awareness and got the conversation rolling in a short period of time. It achieved a media outreach of 3.15 billion and touched about 700 million people via social media and even attracted the support of A-List Indian celebrities like Kareena Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Sonam Kapoor
The idea of self-policing resonated so well that the police forces of Bangalore, Punjab, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh, UP and Haryana decided to adopt the self-policing campaign, becoming a national movement amplifying citizen accountability.
Over the 45 days roll-out of this initiative, the movement took shape depending upon the intensity of the spread. States of Chandigarh, UP and Arunachal Pradesh centered their campaigns around the self-policing thought of staying home to stay safe. Bangalore City had a milder spread and the Police forces joined the movement with the same campaign idea, centered around staying indoors as far as possible and taking adequate precautions (wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, using sanitizers), if citizens felt compelled to step out. A similar campaign for Haryana Police was created as their lockdown restrictions started easing up. The campaign featured India’s most celebrated Olympic athletes, Vijender Singh (Olympic Boxing Medalist) and Babita Kumari (Commonwealth Wrestling Gold Medalist) urging the citizens to help the police in every way possible.
The movement was at its peak and the country was standing in support of the police force when one horrific and gory event shook the entire nation.
On April 16th 2020 the campaign turned into a rebellion. While attempting to enforce COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, Punjab’s Sub-Inspector Harjeet Singh’s hand was amputated by a group of people, who were violating the curfew restrictions. This gruesome event turned this campaign into an uprising. Rather than just focusing on personal and family safety, the campaign now expressed solidarity for Harjeet Singh.
The gruesome attack on 1 Harjeet Singh rapidly mutated to create a million Harjeet Singhs.
The Punjab police force shared their support and respect for their fellow policeman by wearing his name on their uniform badge, therefore tagging as #MainBhiHarjeetSingh (I am also Harjeet Singh). Soon, celebrities and influencers like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Sonu Sood, Gurdas Mann, Suniel Shetty and Sunny Deol showed their support, along with the citizens across Punjab and the nation. The Police forces of 12 states also joined in to display their strong sense of solidarity by participating and voicing their support for the cause.
210 million+ wore the badge of the police with pride. Over the two most critical months of the lockdown, as each state campaign rolled out, citizens across the country took responsibility of each other as one with the Police. They stood in solidarity not just for their respective city or state, but also for the entire nation, truly embodying the spirit of #MainBhiIndianPolice (I am Indian Police).