Health Issues,
Demotivation Reason... because 73% Police in India Work 7 Days A Week Every Month
A recent report
published by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BRPD) and
Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) has found that 90% of police officers
work for more than eight hours a day and 73% do not get a weekly off even once
a month. That's not all. They are often called into work on their rare holidays
for emergency work.
If a police officer in
your area doesn't work efficiently or has a bad attitude it might be because of
this reason. The police force is highly overworked, underpaid and completely
under-staffed.
These terrible working
conditions have lead to serious health concerns, widespread discontent and
demotivation within the police force, which eventually results in a diminished
perception of the police by the general public.
According to Times
of India, the
research involved extensive field survey including 12,156 police station staff,
1,003 SHOs and 962 supervisory officers, from ranks ranging from constables to
IGPs, in 319 districts in 23 states and two Union Territories. All nine police
stations types - metropolitan, urban, urban-rural mixed rural, crime, traffic,
women, tribal and others were covered in the survey.
"The field survey conducted among the large
samples of SHOs and supervisory offices indicates that nearly 90% of police
station staff works for more than eight hours a day. More than 68% of SHOs and
over 76% of supervisory officers stated that staff members in police stations
were on duty for 11 hours or more per day. 27.7% SHOs and 30.4% supervisory
officers reported that their staff worked for more than 14 hours a day,"
the study said.
The study also shows
that the current working hours are not in consonance with Indian labour laws,
or international laws, they are also in violation of Article 42 of the Indian
Constitution.
Talking about impacts, the study said, "The
long hours of duty have had multiple negative impacts on efficient policing.
Nearly two-thirds (74%) of respondents among police station staff have reported
that the current working hours lead to health problems of different kinds for
them. A large majority (more than 76%) of SHOs also felt that the current duty
hour arrangement was deleterious to health of staff. Conditions like joint pain
due to long hours of standing, stress, sleeplessness, acidity, etc seem to
occur early in life of police personnel."
All of this takes a toll
on their moral, motivation and self-esteem. Their overall behavior with the
public is probably a manifestation of their poor working conditions.
More than anything, the
conditions within which they work have adverse affects on their quality of
work. Weary and tired policemen will not be able to perform their best, whether
it is in crime investigation, law and order duties, information gathering or
patrolling. Their job performance will be affected and thus our safety will be jeopardized.
The study said introduction of shift system
would mean rationalizing the work hour norms for police station staff to more
acceptable limits. According to the SHOs, there was a need of 1.68 times
strength of the present sanctioned strength for the shift system.
The study suggested that augmentation of police
station strength with some 337,500 personnel (50% of the present sanctioned
strength) would take the ratio of police station manpower to a little over 45%
of the total police strength in the states/Union Territories, and this would
help in ensuring efficient policing.
"Shift system of functioning in police
stations is absolutely imperative for efficient and people-friendly policing,
as also for conductive work-life balance for police personnel. Implementation
of shift system in police station work is a functionally achievable objective,
as established by our case studies of the 8-hour duty system of Police," the study said.
The police force in this
country is highly under-appreciated, they work non-stop and have no means of
releasing frustration other than on the public. Police brutality has become a
growing problem, resulting in the public completely losing faith in those
entrusted to keep them safe. But one cannot solely blame the cops for this,
they are expected to get results and get them fast. They use whatever means
necessary - not to say that this should be excused - but what choices are they
left with?
The government needs to
put in a great deal of effort to increase funding and employment within the
force. Perhaps increasing the number of women officers to take some of the
burden off the men could be a start.
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