Supriya Mishra, a 10th grader at Aniruddha Public Secondary School in Kapilvastu, is learning how to use social media safely.

“I am understanding about cyber crime and have started to differentiate criminal and non-criminal activities in cyberspace,” said Mishra from Baidoli in Yashodhara Rural Municipality.

Keeping in view the rise in cybercrime cases of late, the District Police Office in Kapilvastu has started developing a new curriculum to aware students about cyber crime and safe internet use.

The student-targeted curriculum has been launched in 80 schools of Kapilvastu Municipality and Yashodhara Rural Municipality, police said.

Anita Chaudhary, a 10th grader at Kanakmuni Secondary School in Ward No. 9 of Kapilvastu Municipality, says she has learnt from the curriculum about safe internet usage.

“I have even learnt how to find educational materials from the internet. This has been very helpful,” Chaudhary said.

According to the District Police Office, this School Police Partnership Programme will help children be aware of risks associated with the use of the internet and protect them from such crimes.

“This will eventually help the children grow into responsible citizens,” said Superintendent of Police in Kapilvastu Nawaraj Adhikari.

The District Police Office has distributed textbooks to the schools. The book aims to educate students on various issues like drug abuse, smoking, alcohol consumption, cyber crime and the use of social media in a safe way.

Several social issues like child marriage, withchcraft accusation, dowry system, crimes incurred on children and sexual misbehavior on children have been included in the text book. Similarly, the book gives information about legal punishment on rape conviction, criminal record system, retaliation against gender violence, drug addiction, human trafficking, cyber crime and traffic rule awareness. The safety measures to protect from snake bite and fire incidents are also incorporated in the book along with the positive and negative aspects of using social media.

The book will be distributed among the students from grade 5 to grade 12. The District Police Office is planning to launch the book in all 10 local units of Kapilvastu district.

“We will expand the book distribution programme to all the local units within a month. Police officers will take classes as a guest teacher if need be,” said Superintendent of Police Nabaraj Adhikari.

Ramesh Pandey, principal at Anirudra Secondary School in Baidoli, expressed his hope that the book would be helpful to make a responsible citizen out of the students.

“The book will be helpful in maintaining peace and security in the society,” said Pandey. “Students can prevent themselves from being a victim of various social crimes with the help of the course.”

At present, the book distribution scheme is a pilot project of the police administration. The administration says the book will be further revised and distributed widely in the future.