Hyderabad: With the murder of IndiGo state head Rupesh Kumar Singh, who was allegedly shot dead by criminals near his apartment entrance gate which lies under the Shastri Nagar police station area in Patna, a concern for the public safety has sprung all over the state. Amid this public outcry, the India Justice Report-2020 has claimed that the state has only one police person for 1,548 persons. This is, however, a reduction of 115 persons from three years ago.
As this data sprang eerie Biharis, the national average is not in a pretty good situation as it says average, 'one police person is responsible for the safety of 858 persons, an upswing of over 75 people compared to 2017'.
"While the other states like West Bengal has one for every 1,284; and Assam one for every 1,243. Punjab, at one for nearly 462 persons has the lowest ratio amongst large and mid-sized states. Manipur, under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), has one police person for every 202", claims the report.
Report claims over 20 percent vacant posts in police department
According to the data, the vacancy at the national level stood at 20 per cent, reflecting a drop of 2 percentage points since 2017. This improvement, however, is concentrated at the constabulary level.
Many states, of all sizes, have vacancies that exceed 25% of the state’s own sanctioned strength.
Uttar Pradesh, the state, whose Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that the state has seen a drastic decline in the crime rate during his regime, the data claims that the state had 53 per cent vacancies in the constabulary and 63 per cent among officers in 2017 has jumped three spots in the police ranking to fifteenth, owing largely to recruitment drives that have reduced vacancies.
Telangana performed the worst in filling vacancies of police constables where more than 40 percent posts where vacant. The state however fared better in the recruitment of Police officers with just about 14 percent vacant posts.
Madhya Pradesh, Bihar at the least in term of police vacancies; Uttarakhand at the top
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar ranked the lowest with around 49% vacancies for police officers which is yet to be filled. While Uttarakhand performed the best with 3% in constable and 9% in officers category vacant until now.
Women in police
The national average for women remains a lowly 10 per cent. This is a marginal increase from 7 per cent seen in 2017.
One out of every four police persons is a woman in Bihar.
- Bihar stands out with the highest target at 38 per cent.
- Between 2015 and 2019, Bihar showed the most intention to increase women’s representation in the police (from 7 per cent to 25 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (from 12 per cent to 19 per cent) and Gujarat (from 4 per cent to 12 per cent).
- Just two states/UTs, 17 showed a declining five-year trend of inducting women.
In Himachal Pradesh, one out of every five is a woman.
- Despite having the highest share of women-only 6 per cent in Bihar are at the officer level; in Himachal, this is 5 per cent.
- Nationally, with women officers averaging just 7 per cent, the glass ceiling remains very much in place everywhere.
India Justice Report
The second edition of the India Justice Report is based on publicly available data of different government entities on the four pillars of justice delivery -- police, judiciary, prisons and legal aid.
The ranking is an initiative of Tata Trust in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.
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