Indian Police Service (IPS) has been read the riot act by a freshly published report by Human Rights Watch. The 118 page inculpating report by the human rights watchdog entitled ‘"Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police," catalogues a host of human rights violations committed by the IPS. Highlighted human rights infringements include the deployment of illegal procedures such as arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Successive Indian governments have publicly recognised institutional failings within the Indian Police Service but privately have elected to fudge the controversial issues of reform and accountability. An Indian Supreme Court judgment in 2006 instructed the government to urgently address the specific issues of public accountability and police autonomy relating to staffing procedures.
Whilst Indian society is evolving economically and socially apace the same cannot be said for the IPS implementation of the rule of law. It remains stubbornly fixed in anachronistic British imperialist style time warp and has vehemently resisted international calls for 21st style reform. Asia director at Human Rights Watch Asian Director, Brad Adams, commented;
"India is modernizing rapidly, but the police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats...............It's time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system."
The damning comprehensive report was compiled using material from was interviews conducted with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victim statements and also contributions from both regional experts and Indian reform activists. The litany of human rights violations includes accusations of;
- IPS, members adopting an above ‘the law approach’
- Insufficient ethical and professional codes of conduct
- Inability to counteract India’s criminal elements
- IPS was guilty of non registry of crimes, trumping up charges, illegal incarceration, extracting confessions via torture, and extrajudicial murders.
Human Rights Watch representative, Naureen Shah, regards the current Indian police culture is the remnants of institutional practice employed during the reign of British Imperialism in India;
"They are often relying on old methods of policing,.................When they were first constituted as a colonial force in the 1800's they were taught to use repression, fear - the public's fear rather than its cooperation. And, that is still the way they are doing policing today."
The by-product of this endemic attitude has been a wide scale incertitude and consternation towards the fear of police and to people avoiding it, fearing demands for bribes, illegal detention or torture.
Human Rights Watch emphasised a "dangerous state of disrepair" precipitating through all ranks of the Indian Police Service police. Furthermore the generic problems are exacerbated by poor governmental funding leaving the force "overstretched and ill equipped". India currently has triple the global average of police officers per head of population. Coupled with this, the human rights watchdog claims the “police infrastructure is crumbling and decaying police stations lack vehicles, phones or computers. The working environment for low-ranking police is often dismal.” According to Naureen Shah;
"A lot of the police we spoke to did not seem to realize or did not seem to understand that there were other ways of doing things." In the report one police officer said "If we said 'why is it you torture so much to get a confession...............................What do you expect me to do? Do you expect me to sit the fellow down and ask him politely if he committed the crime? He is not going to tell me anything. These harsh methods are necessary.' So, there is a lack of awareness that there are other ways of doing things. "
The comprehensive human rights report identifies that state and local obstruction of IPS implementation of the rule of law is rife throughout India.
Human Rights Watch concludes by invoking the Indian government to urgently address the issues they have highlighted in order to redress the plight of their stricken police force.
Further appraisal and link to the Human Rights Watch report, ‘"Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police," here
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