Kumbh Seva Mitras armed with spl training to help pilgrims, tourists

State government has decided to appoint more than 1,000 ‘Kumbh Seva Mitras’ to help pilgrims and tourists move around with ease and enjoy their visit during the forthcoming mega religious fair of Mahakumbh-2025. Prayagraj Mela Authority has floated a ‘Request for Proposal’ for selection of institute/ agency for conducting training workshops for Mahakumbh-2025 and serving as skill-training partners for imparting necessary training to youth volunteers/Kumbh Seva Mitras and police personnel. This includes ‘Event management and crowd control’ covering understanding crowd dynamics like crowd behaviour, density management, and movement patterns; crowd control techniques like barriers, checkpoints, and the use of non-lethal measures as well as emergency evacuation plans like protocols for evacuation in case of emergencies, such as stampedes or fire outbreaks besides role assignment and coordination like roles of police and Seva Mitras in managing different sections of the event. Among these, the Kumbh Seva Mitras deployed in and around the Kumbh Mela area will do the work of showing the way to the devotees in the Kumbh area, carrying heavy bags of elderly devotees as and when required, reuniting lost devotees, helping the devotees at the ghats, making devotees aware of cleanliness in the mela area, getting treatment done for sick devotees, cooperating with the police in case of an accident, helping in improving the traffic system, and assisting in crowd management, etc.