Startling disclosures on police inadequacies

Poor spending on modernisation of force highlighted

February 17, 2021 10:43 pm | Updated February 18, 2021 10:53 am IST - Hyderabad

Only 1.12% of the police expenditure is spent on training. There are 156 police personnel per every hundred-thousand individuals in the country. An average of three policemen guards a VIP in the country which has nearly 15,000 VIPs. Of the allocated ₹1,937 crore for modernisation of police force in 2018-19, only ₹802 crore has been utilised. India spent 0.76% of its GDP on rule of law in contrast to above 1.5% by most developed countries. These were some of the startling statistics dug out by researchers for an advocacy paper by Foundation for Democratic Reforms.

While India has one of the lowest crime rates in the world with 377.3 crimes per 100,000 population, in only 23.22% cases there is judgment in the first year.

“Without sufficient investment and rethink about policing and law and administration, we cannot enforce rule of law. To grow economically, we need rule of law. We are now chasing useless affairs. Knee-jerk reactions will not improve law and order machinery. We need to understand where the problem is. Research by the students of University of Hyderabad and Indian School of Business shows the problem,” said Jaya Prakash Narayana of Foundation for Democratic Reforms.

Among the comity of 128 nations, India was ranked 114 for order and security, 98 for civil justice, 84 for fundamental rights, 85 for absence of corruption, the researchers tabulated.

The researchers linked the delivery of justice and prosecution in India to their representation. India had 0.6 prosecutors for 100,000 people; in contrast the United States of America had 17.6 prosecutors for every 100,000 citizens. India had 14 judges per million while other developed countries had between 43 (Australia) and 270 (UK) judges per million. The numbers can be easily linked to the pendency of cases in the country. A trial judge in India disposes of 824 cases in a year while his/her counterpart in the UK disposes of 159 cases.

India spent 0.09% of its GDP on law courts while countries like Germany, UK and Australia spent upwards of 0.37% of their GDP on law courts.

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