Karnataka’s police constabulary is up in arms. A mass leave call has been issued by the Karnataka Police Mahasangha for June 4, and the top brass is jittery. Though the Mahasangha is not officially recognised, its appeal has evoked a big response. Its key demand: An eight hour shift.
It is an unreachable goal for forces across the country, and the effects are visible in the physical and psychological health of the personnel.
From Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram, the story is the same: No State has a system where the constabulary hands over the baton every eight hours.
In Kerala, where this has been implemented in 57 of 503 station houses, the rule is observed more in the breach. A heavy workload and shortage of hands are to blame. Mumbai has begun experimenting with eight-hour duty at Deonar police station.
Shorter shift is a pipedream for police in many States
In Karnataka, where the issue has reached the flashpoint, police personnel have for long been demanding an eight-hour workday, with a pay hike and mandatory weekly off. Shifts extend up to 12 hours and beyond and a weekly off is a luxury. A 2011 proposal to cut the shift from 12 to eight hours gathers dust in the Home Department. “There are not enough men. Unless the numbers are augmented, nothing can be done. For an 8-hour shift, you will have to increase the force by a third,” said a senior official.
The State force has a shortfall of nearly 28 per cent, with only 70,000 personnel on the rolls against the sanctioned strength of around 96,000. Although 5,000 are due to retire this year, the State government has approved recruitment of only 3,500 new hands. Also, 8,500 new recruits are in training and will join by September 2016, which would ease the pressure a little, says Raghavendra Auradkar, Additional Director General of Police, Recruitment, Karnataka.
In Mumbai, around 12,000 officers and 38,000 constables have 12-hour workdays. For most personnel, particularly constables, duty often stretches to 15 hours — even more during special deployments for festivals or Indian Premier League matches.
City personnel better off
Police personnel in Hyderabad and Cyberabad Commissionerates in Telangana and those in the towns work on a shift with some changes to the hours, but their peers in rural areas are not so lucky: they must slog round-the-clock. “Sometimes if they need a few hours of break for personal reasons, they get permission from the Station House Officer and resume duty soon afterwards,” an Inspector working in Warangal district explained.
In Andhra Pradesh, which has a big anti-Naxal operation going, duty in this unit could mean five days at a stretch. Elsewhere, almost double the eight-hour schedule, ranging from a gruelling 16 hours in Law and Order and Andhra Pradesh Special Police, to 12 -14 hours in Traffic and 14 hours in Armed Reserve is the norm.
Delhi Police is relatively better off, and short by just 6,000 of its sanctioned strength of 84,500. Yet, that in no way describes the workload. The capital’s police stations function with the help of just half the ideal strength, mainly because several personnel are on VIP security, in special units, reserve forces, armed forces or in different battalions. “On an average, we work 16-18 hours a day. There are times when we are unable to sleep for 36 hours,” says a sub-inspector.
Eight-hour duty is a pipedream in Tamil Nadu too, due to manpower shortage. In Chennai, the force is 18,000 strong, including 6,000 from the armed battalion, against the sanctioned strength of nearly 25,000. Of the 12,000, many are on ‘other duties’, putting the rest under severe stress. “The city is divided into over 400 sectors and patrolling is done in three shifts each going up to eight hours. However due to the shortage, a shift runs up to 12 hours. We have been fighting for a union for nearly three decades. We hope we will be able to form one soon,” said an officer.
Well-ordered eight-hour shifts are a mirage in Kerala. Successive governments have tried to introduce a shift system in select police stations, but with little success. The reasons are many. The urban-rural divide is thin, and settlements are dense. Some 503 station houses cover an estimated 3.3 million people.
Most stations are manned by fewer than 25 officers. Policemen in cities work longer hours than their rural colleagues.
Sanctioning optimal level of staff would entail a huge additional financial burden of about Rs.1,500 crore, over Rs.3,000 crore now spent a year.
The State police have opted for increased automation of traffic management and law enforcement to tide over the manpower crisis. That, however, is small consolation for the constabulary.
