Entrenched biases and poor training may explain alleged police excesses

Ever since Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, earlier this month, India has seen widespread protests. These protests have involved political parties, civil society, and student groups, as well as large number of ordinary Muslim citizens. Many of these protests have been marred by violence, involving the destruction of public property and clashes between police and protesters.

However, the police in many states have also been accused of using excessive force on protesters. In Uttar Pradesh, there are reports and allegations that the police targeted Muslim protesters, even attacking some Muslim neighbourhoods and houses. To be sure, there is another side to the story — Uttar Pradesh police officials have spoken of large, well-organised mobs, intent on violence, and armed with guns in some cases.

Still, this is a good time to remember the findings from the Status of Policing in India report, released earlier this year by Common Cause and CSDS-Lokniti, which showed that the police in India suffers from inadequacies and biases which might lead to such behaviour. The report said that large sections of the police force are not trained to care about human rights, believed that use of violence is justified against criminal elements, and are more prejudiced against the Muslims in believing that the community was naturally prone towards committing crimes.

The report is based on a survey conducted across 21 states.

It showed that in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, two of the states which witnessed multiple protests in the last two weeks, 31% and 19% personnel never received training in human rights. Assam also tops the states in share of personnel who did not receive training in caste sensitisation and crowd control.

Even among the personnel who received training in any of the three modules, a majority received the training only at the time of joining the police force. This study said that was also true for those who were in the police force for more than five years. (See Chart 1)

The survey data further suggested an inherent prejudice existed among police personnel against various socio-religious communities, but largely against Muslims. For instance, when asked to what extent were people from several communities naturally prone towards committing crimes, 50% police personnel said Muslims were “very much” or “somewhat” naturally prone towards committing crimes. This figure was under 35% in case of Dalits, tribal communities, “upper-caste” Hindus and people from the other backward classes. (See Chart 2)

Uttar Pradesh was among the eight states where a majority of the police personnel surveyed showed this bias against Muslims. It was the highest in Uttarakhand at 79%. Uttar Pradesh was also among the states where the survey found a majority of personnel having a similar prejudice against Dalits.

The need for training in human rights also gains significance as the survey found a large number of police personnel had the inclination to use extrajudicial measures against criminals over a legal trail. Three in every four police personnel surveyed felt it was justified for the police to be violent towards criminals, while one in five felt that killing dangerous criminals was better than a legal trial. To be sure, more educated police personnel, who are more likely to be officers, were found to be more likely to believe that it was alright for the police to be violent towards criminals. (See Chart 3).