{"id":34641,"date":"2018-10-31T12:37:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T07:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34641"},"modified":"2018-10-31T12:37:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T07:07:47","slug":"accountability-not-armour-plating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/accountability-not-armour-plating\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability, not armour plating:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/accountability-not-armour-plating\/article19842135.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Accountability, not armour plating<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With rising atrocities in a democratic country like India, there is a need of debate on police reforms. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the need of police in the democracy?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democracy is the only system of governance that, guarantees the freedom of people and the police as an only institution to protect and curtail the citizenry\u2019s excesses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The police, in any society are the most visible representative of the state\u2019s power. They serve as the backbone of the state\u2019s peace and tranquility. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Some of the key roles of the police in the democracy are as follows:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Firstly, the police are expected to be in the<\/span><b> front line of defence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of not only human rights but in defending our nascent democracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secondly, the police make <\/span><b>effective communication<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between the commoners and law and order.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thirdly, police <\/span><b>takes political, social, and psychological decisions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under the radar of democratic nature of Indian society.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the need for police reforms in India? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first thing to note \u00a0here is that \u2018police\u2019 is a \u2018state\u2019 subject. Nevertheless, there are a number of \u00a0different problems that plague the institution in all the states.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, police have become the subjects of Parliamentarians and legislators with a high degree of politicization and allegiance towards ruling party.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The global average ratio of police-population is 270 to 100,000, where it\u2019s 120 in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With far less man power and ill-equipped, people of India are the least secured people on the globe.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is lack of effective accountability mechanisms. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The lack of effective accountability mechanisms and periodic review of performance has misplaced the public\u2019s confidence in the police.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to corruption in the police system, the investigation process goes on for decades.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the police reforms required in India?<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Primarily, there should be a balance ought to be stroked between allowing the freedom of an individual and the enforcement of all the lawful laws of the society. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To strengthen the lacking effectiveness of the police force, the government comes up with the following initiatives:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, an <\/span><b>Umbrella Scheme, \u2018Modernisation of Police Forces\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has been cleared, with the government.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is said to be one of the biggest moves towards police modernisation in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Supreme Court\u2019s directives on police reform, 2006<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court has put on record the deep rooted problems of politicization, lack of accountability mechanisms and systemic weaknesses that have resulted in poor all round performance. <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive One: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Constitute a State Security Commission (SSC) to: (i) Ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police (ii) Lay down broad policy guideline and (iii) Evaluate the performance of the state police <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Two: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure that the DGP is appointed through merit based transparent process and secure a minimum tenure of two years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Three:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ensure that other police officers on operational duties (including Superintendents of Police in-charge of a district and Station House Officers in-charge of a police station) are also provided a minimum tenure of two years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Four: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Separate the investigation and law and order functions of the police.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Five:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Set up a Police Establishment Board (PEB) to decide transfers, postings, promotions and other service related matters of police officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and make recommendations on postings and transfers above the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Six:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Set up a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) at state level to inquire into public complaints against police officers of and above the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt, or rape in police custody and at district levels to inquire into public complaints against the police personnel below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Directive Seven: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up a National Security Commission (NSC) at the union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of Chiefs of the Central Police Organisations (CPO) with a minimum tenure of two year.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The overall functioning of lower-level officers can be boosted by <\/span><b>better training, better pay and allowances <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and by creating a system that rewards initiative and positive action instead of negative behavior.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accountability, not armour plating:\u00a0 Context: With rising atrocities in a democratic country like India, there is a need of debate on police reforms. What is the need of police in the democracy? Democracy is the only system of governance that, guarantees the freedom of people and the police as an only institution to protect and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/accountability-not-armour-plating\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Accountability, not armour plating:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704881759},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}