Late last month, a new batch of volunteers began assisting traffic police constables at some of Hyderabad’s busiest junctions, wearing white overshirts that read, “I am at crossroads. Reforming myself. Traffic Volunteer.”

They are former “history-sheeters’’ or “rowdy-sheeters’’, with long police records, who have been brought in by the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate to help regulate traffic.

“We are trying out an innovative approach to help people who have reformed themselves and have consistently displayed good behaviour integrate into the mainstream,” said Rachakonda Police Commissioner G Sudheer Babu. “They were called history-sheeters or rowdy-sheeters due to their past behaviour and that stigma remains with them even if they try to mend their ways.”

The Rachakonda Commissionerat

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