Jaipur, Aug. 19 -- For generations, Kanjar families in 18 deras across Jhalawar have been trapped in a vicious cycle. Life on the margins meant poverty, limited education and few livelihood options, pushing some towards crime. The stigma of criminal activity, in turn, shut doors to jobs and mainstream society. The district's 18 deras house around 4,100 people. Police say 150-200 cases of theft, burglary, robbery and dacoity, involving residents, were registered annually in the past. Now, dropouts are returning to school, youth are taking up regular jobs, and families once without basic ID documents are entering banking and welfare systems. The shift follows "Naya Savera", an experiment under which Jhalawar Police moved beyond conventional crime control to work with government departments on socio-economic conditions in Kanjar settlements. Jhalawar SP Amit Budania said interactions revealed a pattern. "Deprivation led to crime, crime deepened social exclusion, and that exclusion created conditions for further deprivation and crime - a vicious cycle that needed to be broken for lasting change," Budania told HT. Housing was among the first hurdles. Many families lacked residential leases, barring access to schemes and basic facilities like water connections. Around 300 members have received leases in the past year, and eligible families are being linked to the PM Awas Yojana. A more fundamental barrier was documentation: some lacked Aadhaar cards or voter IDs. With help from the district administration and Panchayati Raj institutions, these families were assisted in obtaining documents and 154 people have since entered the banking system. The bigger test lies in classrooms. Children from nomadic and denotified communities can access schools under the state's Navjeevan Yojana, but enrolment did not guarantee attendance. Poverty and limited awareness led to frequent dropouts. Families were counselled on schooling and told about free uniforms, study material, nutrition and transport. Around 165 children have been enrolled this session; nearly 900 from the deras are now in educational institutions, police said. For older residents, employment offers another route out. An MoU with RTM, Bhawani Mandi, in March linked vocational training to jobs. Around 170 have trained; nearly 100 secured regular employment. One standout story is Manoj, recently selected for the Home Guard. Police call him the first youth from these deras to land a government job, a modest but significant milestone where such employment was once out of reach. Door-to-door surveys mapped social and economic conditions and criminal involvement patterns. Separate meetings urged residents to abandon crime and seek livelihoods. Around 2,000 pledged to renounce crime, some before the SP. Crime figures show early change. Against 150-200 annual cases in the past, only nine involving these settlements have been recorded since April. The period is too short to declare a lasting trend, but the numbers test whether tackling deprivation can complement policing. Dalit-social activist Bhanwar Meghwanshi welcomed the move, noting that prolonged lack of education, poverty, exclusion, limited jobs and criminal stigma had created a deep socio-economic vicious cycle. "The criminal tag limits respectable employment for youth. Lack of education and resources leaves some children vulnerable to the same environment," he said....