Nainital Leads the Way in Police Reforms of India

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Human in Khaki by Ashok Kumar


As a developing country struggling to emerge from its colonial past, in the arena of public services, there is much that needs improvements in India. One of these is policing. An insidious practice has developed in India to demand long and inhumane working hours from the force. This had led to poor physical and psychological health as well as poor family life of Indian policemen. Such a force cannot be expected to provide quality service to public. While many suggestions for improving the police force have been put forth by individuals and institutions in India, few have been followed up. However, yesterday the High Court at Nainital passed a judgment that is a key element of police reforms in India.

It has been mentioned in a companion blog, https://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.com how the Lovely Himalayan Town of Nainital built around the lake of the goddess Naini has been at forefront of many changes not just in India but also the world since its inception in mid nineteenth century. The present police reforms adds another feather in its cap

This author’s interest in the matter


Emerging from a rich life experience and international education, I have contributed many ideas in my blogs with a hope that they would lead to improvements in various areas of human activity. These were areas in which I had personal experience and interests. Policing was not one of them until 2009. At that time I had joined an educational institute in Nainital district as its Director. On my joining, a dear former student, Ashok Kumar,  who had joined the Indian police service read about it in the local newspaper and immediately called me. He came to visit me with his wife the very next day. Inspector General Ashok Kumar, was the senior most police functionary not just of Nainital District but the entire Kumaon region, of which Nainital is a part, at that time. He has become more senior since and moved to the State Capital. Inspired by many conversations with him in that period as also a book - Human in Khaki – that he wrote around that time in Nainital, I began to ponder over how policing might be improved in India.  The book by Ashok Kumar can be found here,
https://www.amazon.in/Human-Khakhi-Ashok-Kumar/dp/8128834185


As fate would have it my neighbor at that time was the senior most police official of Nainital District under Ashok Kumar and his wife a fellow board member of another Educational Institute in Nainital District, the Birla Institute at Bhimtal. Soon after I wrote a public note containing six suggestions on how policing may be improved in India. I have sent links of this note to the highest authorities in India but little was done since. Even when a service is in need of improvements, there are vested interests that benefit from the deficiency. Sadly the will and energy of these latter persons far exceeds the will of those who might bring about changes for better. Therefore shortcomings persist for decades on ends. That note can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/notes/malhotra-ashok/six-steps-to-strengthening-the-policing-system-in-india/575937605755225/


However, the Nainital High Court, on the PIL of Arun Kumar Bahdauria of Uttarakhand,  has now ordered one of the suggestions of this note –Humane working hours. It imposed humane working hours, not exceeding eight hours per day of duty along with a slew of other humane measures for police personnel in the hill state of Uttarakhand of India. It is expected that citing this judgment, this change will soon spread through other states and union territories of India through similar court orders when interested persons approach them. There could be some modifications of this judgment in other states or on appeals to the Supreme Court of India but it is not possible that conditions will revert back to earlier inhumane hours since that is a violation of basic human rights and right to life. A newspaper report on the matter can be found here,
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/uttarakhand-hc-orders-series-of-directions-for-police-reform-in-the-state/articleshow/64181054.cms


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