Overhaul ill-trained, understaffed police

The story of India’s understaffed and overworked police is a sordid one. Even if all sanctioned police posts were filled, India will have the lowest police-to-public ratio in the world. As things stand, against the sanctioned strength of 22.6 million, India has only 17.2 million policemen on the ground. That over 50,000 of them are deployed to protect nearly 15,000 VIPs aggravates the problem, forcing long and irregular work hours. It is in this backdrop that the Supreme Court admitted a petition in 2013 on vacancies in police services across the country. Notices to all the states were issued, but no action followed. Stung by governmental apathy, the SC last month decided to wield the stick. It asked home secretaries of six states — Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — that accounted for bulk of the vacancies to come up with a road map for filling them all by May 1.

The apex court subsequently accepted the proposed plans from Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with instructions to strictly adhere to the timeline. It had some reservations about responses from Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar, but accepted the reworked proposals from West Bengal and Jharkhand. However, it threw out the road map presented by the Bihar government, saying, “if you do not revise it, then you will be in serious trouble!” Given that most of these vacancies have remained unfilled for years, it is doubtful if the state governments would be able to stick to their respective road maps. The apex court’s warning, that it will monitor their progress and deal harshly with any delay or deviation from the chartered course, should spur them to fast-track the process.

However, shortage of manpower is not the only malaise that afflicts the Indian police. As a recent paper prepared by the Niti Aayog points out, not enough has been done to ensure that policemen are adequately trained. Out of the total police expenditure of Rs 74,257.66 crores during 2014-15, only 1.46% was spent on training. As a result, police training academies lack essential infrastructure and facilities. The limited force has even more limited material support; 342 police stations in India do not have a telephone; 127 stations have no wireless facilities and 54 have neither. To reach a crime scene, the force has only seven vehicles for every 100 policemen. These constraints must be addressed besides filling vacancies. As crime rates spiral upwards and the nature of crimes becomes more menacing, India needs better trained and better-equipped policemen to face the new challenges.