Police Internship Scheme

What is the Madhya Pradesh Police Internship Scheme?

Police Internship Scheme is a Home Department programme of the Government of Madhya Pradesh that places students inside district police units for a short supervised internship. According to the Madhya Pradesh CM Helpline scheme database, the scheme was launched on 1 June 2018, and its stated objective is to acquaint meritorious students with police functioning and encourage research on police-related subjects.

Two things about that objective are worth reading carefully, because they shape everything else. First, the scheme is about exposure and research, not recruitment. Second, it is a state-level scheme delivered entirely at the district level, you apply to your district Superintendent of Police, and the placement is with that district's police units.

Key features

• Duration is six weeks, run inside district police units.
• The internship is unpaid. The Home Department entry records financial assistance as nil.
• Applications are offline and free, filed once a year.
• The last date is 25 May each year, as published by the Home Department.
• The output expected is research, a written paper, plus a daily log of work assigned.
• The appeal authority is the Police Training Directorate, Police Headquarters, Bhopal.

Who is eligible for the Police Internship Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a student, male or female, from an urban or rural area of Madhya Pradesh. The Home Department entry describes the beneficiary group in exactly those terms.
• You meet the educational qualification specified in the year's advertisement. Reported guidance describes eligible fields as law, engineering, postgraduate programmes, professional courses such as CA and CS, and criminology-related diplomas.
• You are currently enrolled at a recognised institution and can produce a bonafide certificate.
• You apply within the annual window, closing 25 May.
• Reported guidance places the age band at 21 to 26 years. This figure comes from published summaries rather than the departmental entry, so confirm it with your district Superintendent of Police office.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not currently a student. The scheme is built around an academic placement and a research output, so graduates who have left education are not eligible.
• You apply after 25 May. Late applications are not carried to the next cycle.
• You are looking for paid work experience. There is no stipend, and a candidate who needs to earn over the summer should treat that as disqualifying in practice even though it is not an eligibility rule.
• You cannot commit to the full six weeks. Reported guidance states that no leave is permitted during the internship.
• You expect the internship to help you get into the police force. Completing it confers no preference in Madhya Pradesh Police recruitment, which runs entirely through the Employees Selection Board examination process.

What does an intern actually do?

Interns are attached to a district police unit and work under official supervision. The Home Department describes the purpose as familiarising students with police functioning; published guidance on the scheme fills in the detail:

• Observing administrative processes: how a district police office runs, how records are kept, how duties are assigned.
• Observing the legal framework in practice, how a complaint becomes a First Information Report, and how the police interact with the courts and the prosecution.
• Observing investigative procedure under supervision.
• Maintaining a daily log of the duties and observations assigned each day.
• Submitting a research paper, reported at around 3,000 words, at the end of the placement. This is the "research on police-related subjects" the scheme's objective refers to.

Interns are expected to observe strict discipline throughout, and are not police officers, they hold no powers, carry no authority and cannot act independently in any police matter.

How many interns are taken and where?

Placement capacity is set by the size of the district unit rather than by a single statewide number. Published guidance describes the large city commissionerates and district units — Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior, taking two to three interns each, and medium-sized districts taking one intern each. That makes the scheme genuinely small and competitive at the district level, and it explains why shortlisting weighs academic record.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Police Internship Scheme

1. Watch for the annual notice at your district Superintendent of Police office and on mppolice.gov.in, which the Home Department lists as the scheme's online reference. Applications are invited once a year.
2. Obtain the prescribed application form. The Home Department entry specifies that the application must be in the prescribed format; the form is available at the district Superintendent of Police office. There is no application fee.
3. Fill in the form with your course, institution, academic record and your stated area of research interest in policing. The research component is part of the scheme's purpose, so a specific interest strengthens the application.
4. Attach your documents, educational certificates and marksheets, bonafide certificate, identity proof and a passport-size photograph.
5. Submit the application at the office of the district Superintendent of Police by 25 May, and take a dated acknowledgement.
6. Wait for the shortlist. Shortlisting is described as being based on eligibility, academic performance and demonstrated interest in policing.
7. Report to the allotted district police unit at the start of the internship window, arranging your own accommodation and meals.

How to check your application status

There is no online tracker for this scheme. Contact the office of the district Superintendent of Police where you filed the application, quoting the acknowledgement you were given. Because intake per district is small and the window between the 25 May deadline and the start of the internship is short, follow up in the last week of May rather than waiting to be contacted.

If your application is not taken up and you believe it was wrongly rejected, the Home Department names the Police Training Directorate, Police Headquarters, Bhopal as the appeal authority for this scheme.

Why applications are turned down

• Filed after 25 May. The window is annual and narrow.
• Not a current student, or no bonafide certificate attached.
• Course not covered by the year's specified educational qualification.
• No places left in the district. With one to three interns per district, most rejections are capacity rejections rather than eligibility failures. A candidate in this position should apply again in the next cycle.
• Incomplete application, marksheets or photograph missing from the prescribed form.
• Unable to commit to the full six weeks, given that no leave is permitted.

Key dates

The 25 May deadline is the one date to hold on to. It is published on the Home Department scheme entry and it is fixed year to year, unlike the internship window itself, which reported sources place at 1 June to 12 July but which the departmental entry does not confirm as a fixed calendar.

What the internship is not

Madhya Pradesh Police recruitment for constable, sub-inspector and other ranks runs through the Employees Selection Board examination process, entirely separately from this scheme. Completing a police internship gives no marks, no preference and no relaxation in that process. The scheme's value is the exposure and the completion certificate, which matters most to a law, criminology or public policy student building a case for further study or research in the field.

Equally, the internship is not a paid summer job. The Home Department entry records financial assistance as nil, and interns meet their own living costs for the six weeks.

Grievance redressal

• Office of the district Superintendent of Police, where the application is filed and the placement is made.
• Police Training Directorate, Police Headquarters, Bhopal. The appeal authority named for this scheme.
• CM Helpline 181 for a complaint about a district office not accepting or not processing an application.
• Dial 100 / 112 are emergency police numbers and should not be used for internship queries.

There is no fee for this internship at any stage, and no intermediary can secure a placement. Applications are received and decided by the district Superintendent of Police office directly.