Made-in-Thrissur caps for cops

THRISSUR: A single family of Poothole here is meeting around five percent of the overall demand for 60,000 peak caps a year for the policemen in Kerala.Radhakrishnan began to make peak caps 33 years ago in Tamil Nadu for livelihood. Later, his wife Ramadevi and son Sajith Nair joined him. “We make around 3,000 caps a year. It is difficult to meet the demand. We can’t compromise with the quality of the caps,” says Radhakrishnan. Radhakrishnan started his peak cap making career in Madras in 1972.“The turning point happened in Madras when I went to study engineering. As I failed in mathematics, I moved to a small shop, which was making peak caps. I learnt the craft of cap-making  there and later started my own  business,” he said.He had also made Kapi cap used by French Police, but it was for the Mahe police. The design of the cap varies according to the rank of the police official. The supply is done only in Kerala though there are demands from other states.A police cap costs Rs 140 and the price would increase as the rank goes high. The cap of DIG would cost Rs 750. Earlier, the Home Department had been directly buying the police uniform articles from contractors. But later the department started giving uniform allowance of Rs 2,500 a year to each police officer. Kerala Police Officers Association general secretary K Bhaskaran said that the uniform and cap are bought by the police personnel themselves. “We buy caps from canteens and societies,” he added.