69: What ails Indian policing? A conversation with Jacob Punnose and Jayanto Choudhury

Shownotes“Policing is a service to the citizen, when citizen needs the policemen, the policemen should be there at the police station. This is the responsibility of a democratically elected government, this is a guarantee given under the constitution to protect the life and property of every citizen.”Maintaining law and order is a state subject in India. This means that each of India’s 28 states has the responsibility to ensure an effective and efficient police force that ensures the safety and security of all. Though all states have their own laws all of them are modelled on the Police Act of 1861. This was designed to: control a subject population; isolate the police from the public and obey the orders of the rulers of the day rather than protect the rule of law. The question is, is this the model we want to keep 75 years after independence and if not what can be done to change it.√ Public perception of police is at an all time low√ Police forces in India (both central and state) are short staffed√ India, the second-most populous nation in the world, has amongst the lowest global police to population ratios at 158 for 100,000. This is inadequate when compared to UN recommendations on 222 personnel per lakh√ Police personnel work long hours without weekly offs, heavy work load, inadequate training√ Constables constitute 86% of the police forces and they are generally promoted only once in their career resulting in lack of motivationThere is a difference between the police that we have and the police we need. Experts are clear that policing has to change from merely maintaining law and order and preventing crime to being one that is a first responder in creating a public environment in which all can enjoy every right to the fullest within the framework of rule of law. In the 4th episode of the podcast Jacob Punnose ex-DGP and State Police Chief of Kerala and Jayanto Choudhury ex-DG NSG and ex-DGP Assam Police talk about the systemic issues that ail India policing - the conditions of work; budgets; internal culture; accountability; public perception ……..Memorable passages from the podcast👉🏾 Well that's a very interesting subject you brought up, and I think we'll take it one by one. And you have listed several questions, let us first start with working conditions. In most states, you have the armed police and you have the civil police. The armed police is over deployed and it's under equipped, they normally have to handle public order situations, and the civil police are understaffed and very thinly spread, in most states. There are some states like Tamil Nadu which have a very, very good spread of police stations, but most states and maybe Kerala as well, but most states, and I'm talking by my experience in the east, whether it's Bengal or whether it's a Assam, that is the situation.👉🏾 Now hygiene factors are poor, the police to population ratio is inadequate and accommodation provided to police personnel again, there's a shortage and it's substandard. Now if you can improve these and ensure off duty time, you will actually reduce the stressors that impact on behaviour of individuals in the police force. Burnout and even post traumatic stress disorder, these are occupational hazards in field policing. 👉🏾 You know a 14, 16 hour day without a weekly off, is quite normal, and working...