Reforming police
Maja Daruwala & Doel Mukerjee
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The need for police reforms has long been felt. But no one wants to do anything about it |
EVERY SELF-RESPECTING bureaucrat knows that if you want to do nothing about something then set up a committee. That way once you have the committee's report you can set up another to review those findings. By the time that is done you will safely be a decade away from the original problem and be justified in setting up yet another committee to bring the recommendations up to date.
This is what is happening with police reforms when the most recent committee set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs headed by Kamal Kumar in its draft report suggested that there have been more than 627 recommendations made since 1981 but these have remained on the back burner due to lack of funds. This despite the fact that money allocated for police modernisation alone registered a sharp increase of 19.8 per cent from that of last year with a whooping grant of Rs. 14,772 crores. But unfortunately much of this money remains unutilised.
Funds remain unused
Figures over a four-year period prove beyond doubt that anywhere between 11 and 60 per cent of the allotted funds remain unused. In 2001-02 alone central funds to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crores were released to the States out of which only 79.93 per cent was utilised, while in 2003-04 out of Rs. 705.27 crores granted only 37.80 per cent was used. "Police" constitutes 67 per cent of the total budget of the Ministry of Home Affairs. In addition, the Centre gives the States on an average Rs. 800 crores a year as modernisation grants. This is apart from what the States themselves allocate to their policing. What then impedes this agency from improving except the absence of any clear cut planning at different levels both at the Centre and in the States?
Most of the MoHA money that has been utilised has been spent on logistics or infrastructural facilities such as buildings for police stations/outposts, for construction of houses for police personnel and provision of modern weaponry. The rest has been spent on bullet proof, mine protected vehicles, bomb detection and disposal equipment, modern control rooms, etc.
Yet, nothing seems to have been linked to the qualitative aspect, that is, performance evaluation or any report card to indicate that policing is better and that there is more public satisfaction, the crime rate has fallen and the rule of law furthered. For example, the latest National Crime Records Bureau terms the conviction rate of the Delhi police the second poorest in the country — yet some of the largest chunks of money are still assigned to them.
The modernisation grants, whatever else they may be doing, seem to provide little visible relief to shortages on the ground. To cite an example, in Chhattisgarh, most rural police stations remain true to the filmi tradition. Most buildings are dilapidated. The stench of urine permeates the station houses. Tired, potbellied police men and women keep to their routine — filling in registers, writing, signing, going out on duties unrelated to their work and occasionally dealing roughly with the public.
In a survey, 54 per cent of the people interviewed recently in Raipur narrated the poor experiences of their interaction with the police and most of the respondents felt that the people hesitated to meet the police fearing their rudeness, indifference and biases. All this is extremely unfortunate especially at a time when adequate central funds have been received. The money has not helped in building an organisation which is pro-people. The situation could be similar or worse in other States as well. Yet the police are not to blame for the situation in the absence of planning, necessary training and an environment conducive to good policing.
But then `good policing' does not merely involve reduction in crime rates. It is something much more like preparing strategy plans; placing targets through vision statements and mission goals and the subsequent outputs that should make the police more citizen focused. But this has not materialised in our country because even if these beliefs exist, for the moment it is the USP of only the top brass in the agency that needs to percolate downwards. Constant evaluation of performances through user satisfaction measures i.e. whether there are prompt actions, treatment of complainants; through confidence measures by virtue of surveys among the public and through the elimination of caste discriminations and by promoting more diversity in the organisation — all of these would make the agency a service provider.
The need for police reforms has long been felt. But no one wants to do anything about it even as the people, the police, the administration and development suffer. The Kamal Kumar Committee's report on Police Reform is nothing but a red herring to divert the attention of the people from the pressing need of reform.
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