india

Updated: Nov 11, 2019 09:13 IST

A well-oiled criminal justice system is the hallmark of any progressive society. It contributes not only to the economic growth but also to the general well being of a nation and to the overall satisfaction of its citizens. The recently released India Justice Report 2019 (IJR) has studied the four important wings of the criminal justice system — Police, Judiciary, Prisons and Legal Aid.

Titled and based on the officially available data, it has ranked states for their human resources, infrastructure, budget, work load and diversity. One of the ideas behind the study is to reiterate that the delivery of the criminal justice system is directly proportionate to the investments made in its various wings — police, courts, forensics, among others.

While citizens do occasionally discuss issues like pendency in courts, poor quality of prosecution, paucity of legal aid to undertrials and overcrowding of prisons, nothing is panned more widely than a cop’s late arrival in Bollywood film. And it is true: police response and services in India are notoriously poor, starting with delay in registration of a First Information Report to an abysmally low conviction rate. However, the report helps us understand why these issues exist.

One of the issues that the report flags is that of the lack of diversity in police organisations across states. Not being inclusive and not having adequate representation from diverse communities adversely affects police response and performance especially in its dealing with marginalised sections of society. Access to justice for such disadvantaged communities becomes difficult, as their stories are neither understood nor appreciated, adding further misery to their lives. There has been a realisation world over that diversity and inclusiveness are the strength of any organisation. And that irrespective of ethnicity, gender, ideology, religion or belief, individuals with different perspectives contribute to the growth of an organisation.

This is definitely true for the police. Diversity for police in India would mean adequate representation for minorities, women, and persons belonging to scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), among others.

The data as analysed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development and grading of states in the report do not show a positive picture. Even states and union territories with an SC population of over 15% of the total have failed in filling up the quotas for police officers — of the 19 states and UTs that reserved 15% or more seats for SCs, the average gap was 35%. Uttar Pradesh had the highest gap of 68%. Similarly, most states and UTs could not meet their quotas for reservations for scheduled tribes (ST) — the average gap among those with a reservation of 15% or more seats was 44% while it was 55% with respect to the OBC quota.

Within states, the gaps vary. For instance, while Bihar meets the criteria for reservation for ST police officers, it shows a gap of 48% in reservations for both, SC and OBC officers. Still, in the five year period between 2012 and 2016, the state has improved women’s representation from 2% to 9%, where some states like Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Kerala have actually posted a decline in the overall percentage of women. While Chandigarh and Dadra & Nagar Haveli had the highest share of women in the police force at 18% and 15% respectively, many other states have 5% or less women in the police. There are only 7% of women in the police force. These figures are abysmally low, but they’re indicative of only part of the problem.

A 2016 study by Centre for Police Research, Maharashtra, with a sample size of about 500 women police officers of the state had showed that they were not satisfied with the four factors essentials to their performance, namely work environment, respect for gender, gender equality and cooperation. It’s noteworthy to recall here that 33% reservation for women was instituted in the state police in 1994. Not only do we need more women in police, but we also need to provide them with a positive environment to perform their duties. It is pertinent that the Supreme Court as well as the government have mandated that all crime against women and children must be investigated by women officers. As for representation of religious minorities, Muslim representation in the police has remained consistently low at 3–4% during 1999-2013 (excluding Jammu and Kashmir), well below the 14.2% Muslim population in India. A few states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal include reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes category. However, data on Muslim representation in police was not available post 2013 to the IJR team.

A diverse police force leads to an ability to understand the perspective of persons and communities who are different from the mainstream. It also means more internal dialogue within the police that helps in developing a matured and balanced perspective at the field level. During 1993 post Babri Masjid demolition communal riots, Mumbai Police was embarrassed by its own wireless operating staff mouthing foul language against a particular community.

Adequate representation of minorities and diverse communities works as a continuous on-the-job sensitisation within the police department and police response to citizens belonging to these vulnerable and disadvantaged sections improves. Some of the concrete measures in this direction would be increasing awareness about reservation, pre-recruitment training, and special drives to fill vacancies.

A conducive work environment and regular in-service training programmes are essential. The police have no choice but to be inclusive if they wish to improve their performance in justice delivery system. The earlier they fill the vacancies and herald diversity in police, the better it is for citizens and the country. After all, easy access to justice is not a luxury, it is a human right.

Meeran Chadha Borwankar is an IPS officer who retired as the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, India.