Understaffed and abysmal: India's police story in numbers

• was the number of police personnel per 100,000 people in India in 2014.
• The global average was about 350 in 2011.
• Overall, 2.3 million personnel were protecting 1.2 billion people in India, covering 3.1 million square kilometres.
• Basically, while one cop was sanctioned to manage 540 people, in reality s/he was responsible for 716 people.
• Bihar and West Bengal face the biggest crunch.While 1 police personnel in Bihar serve 968 people, in its neighbouring state the number is 832.

• the number of vacancies in both civil and armed police forces in January 2014.
• Uttar Pradesh reported the most - 199,420 - vacancies, followed by Gujarat (42,870).
• There were 18 vacancies at the top level in state police forces; at the constable level, the vacancy was 390,261.
• The Union ministry of home affairs advised all states in September 2014 to fill these vacancies. The ball is in the court of the states as it is a state subject.
• At Crime Investigation Departments - the wing for investigation of serious crimes - there were 1,441 vacancies; in special task forces, dealing with extremists, terrorists and gangs, the vacancy was 7,138.
• Reasons for vacancy are plenty - from stressful duty hours, low salaries to slow recruitment.

• is the total number of personnel in position at the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in 740 battalions.
• There are eight categories of CAPF:

1. Assam Rifles
2. Border Security Force
3. Central Industrial Security Force
4. Central Reserve Police Force
5. National Security Guard
6. Railway Protection Force
7. Sashatra Seema Bal
8. Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force

• There is a total vacancy of 80,261 personnel in these cadres.
• CAPF are engaged in important tasks like policing border areas, providing security to public sector undertakings, riot control, fighting insurgency. This huge vacancy indicates the vulnerability of India's security infrastructure.

• is the representation of Dalits in Indian police forces.
• Many states have not fulfilled mandated reservations.
• In UP, the government has laid down for a 21% quota; but only 8.7% of personnel are Dalits.
• The highest gap (12.2 percentage points) in UP is followed by followed by West Bengal (8.76 pp), where Dalits make up 13.24% of the force against a stipulated 22%.
• Tribal representation is meagre too - only 8.2%; even Chhattisgarh, with a heavy tribal population, has a deficit of 13.2 pp.

rupees

• was spent on policing, excluding CAPF, across states in 2013-14.
• This was double the amount was allocated to generate rural employment that year.
• However, only 1.7% of this was for police training.
• On an average, across states, only 2.9% of state expenditure is allocated under police heads; Odisha spent the least - 0.2%.
• Lack of funds are a major challenge for police reforms. According to experts, underfunding has not only deterred modernisation but also led to a manpower crunch.

• was the number of women in Indian police forces, excluding CAPF, far lower than western, developed countries.
• Women made up only 6.1% of the forces; there are a total 518 women police stations.
• Studies have indicated that women personnel were given mostly desk jobs and were not accepted by male colleagues.
• In 2013, the Centre issued a guideline saying there should be a 30% representation of women and all police stations should have 10 female constables and three female sub-inspectors.

The worrying statistics include:

• 600 police buildings being operating from rented premises
• 153 firearms being stolen from police stations
• an average 1,000 unlawful detentions by cops every year

Clearly our police forces are not in the best of shape; they are understaffed, minorities and vulnerable groups are under represented and funding is abysmal.

Edited by Joyjeet Das

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