Alappuzha District police are to change the ambience of police stations to make it child-friendly. As the first step, five stations will be made child-friendly and one of it will be converted as a model police station.

In the first phase Alappuzha North, Cherthala, Kayamkulam, Chengannur and Punnapra will be transformed into child-friendly stations. The Punnapra station will be made into a model one. Officials said in a later stage, all station houses in the district will be converted into model stations.

The child-friendly and model police stations will have a mini children's park, besides a de-addiction centre, facilities for counselling and personality training. Work is on to create a child zone complete with swings, toys, comic books and colourful posters in all the five police stations, said District Police Chief S Surendran.

"All the five police stations in the district will be declared child-friendly by the end of this week. We are modifying the stations to satisfy the needs of children. A police officer will be assigned to assist children. The initiative will help to create cordial relations with the public," said the District Police Chief.

The model police station initiative will ensure the involvement of the police in creating a better community. There will be a help desk at all model police stations offering assistance to children, women, differently abled and senior citizens. It will also act as a family counselling and de-addiction centre, the DPC said.