it is a well know fact that common people in this country have no faith in the police. you take an accident victim to hospital you are likely to be harassed and treated like you are a criminal. be a witness and the police will barge into your house any time of the day or night without as much as a 'by your leave'.
in my interactions with lower level policeman the standard argument i have come across is ,*'yeh batao,koi chor mila to use bitha ke chaya pilayen aur pyaar se poocehen ke bhaiyya kuch kiya ho to bata de. jab tak do lappad na paden sasuren moonh na kholte" * they have no concept of scientific questioning, like asking the same question again and again in different circumstances and tripping them up. or asking them questions and then confronting them with evidence that refute their answers. all this takes time. there are not enough policemen on the job. more than half are protecting our VIPs who strut around talking down to us and to the police too who actually are just lower or middle class people with limited education and family tensions, and long working hours with little pay. i think if we could understand these problems and do a bit of campaigning for there working conditions we could soften them up. not much, just a bit. so they don't harass any one unnecessarily. so file an application under rti act asking for working hours of the constable, his salary and what other allowances he gets. ditto with SI then inspector. how many are posted for vip security? we can fnd out otherwise too. but an ngo doing it and then doing a big story on it may reach put to some souls in the police. anjali deshpande
