Twelve-year-old Umesh Netam has been skipping school for three days a week for the past five years. Not that he whiles away his time with friends - the boy actually reports to the fourth battalion of Chhattisgarh Police based in Mana, on the outskirts of state capital Raipur, as a cop.

Netam is among about 100 boys and girls in the state who are working in the police department and are nicknamed 'balarakshaks'.