5.42 lakh vacancies in police forces, says study

The number of policemen in service across the country has decreased by 1,685 in 2015 compared to the previous year even as 24 per cent of the posts remained vacant, a latest government report showed.

This has left the police forces in a situation where they have only 139 personnel for a lakh population, when the standard set by United Nations is way above at 220 police per lakh population. The figure for the United States is 256 while that of United Kingdom is 307 and Pakistan 207.

The latest “Data on Police Organisation” showed that there are 5.42 lakh vacancies as on January 1, 2015 in police forces across the country at a time there were 22.63 lakh sanctioned positions. States could fill only 17.21 lakh personnel while it had 17.22 lakh strength as on January 1, 2014.

The report prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development showed that Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of vacancies at 1.99 lakh followed by West Bengal with 45,430 posts where there are no personnel. Karnataka also finds itself in the top-five list with 33,307 vacancies while Bihar has 41,696 and Gujarat 26,110. The vacancies are adding to the burden of police forces in the country as personnel are forced to work without a break and affecting the efficiency in policing. A government-sponsored study had last year said that 75 per cent of police personnel claim they rarely manage to get a weekly off while Inspectors acknowledge that their subordinates work more than 11 hours a day.

Among the vacancies, the highest are among lower levels. There are 3.61 lakh vacancies in the post of Constables while it is a little over one lakh in Head Constable rank.
There are 24,710 posts vacant in the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector, 47,271 in Sub Inspector and 5,527 among Inspectors.

In the state intelligence apparatus, there are 11,102 vacancies while the sanctioned strength is 39,375. Ninety per cent of these vacancies are in the lower ranks between Constables and Inspectors.

There are 3,578 vacancies in Constable rank in intelligence apparatus in the state police forces, 1,950 in Head Constable, 1,121 Assistant Sub Inspectors, 3,491 Sub Inspectors and 643 Inspectors.