Consistent low representation of Muslims in the police force in India

A video has been doing the rounds on social media, wherein light has been shed upon the issue of lack of Muslims found in the police force. The video quotes the data presented by the NCRB in the year 2010, detailing Muslim representation in the police force of India. Here is a table from the report that shows SC, ST and Muslim and Other representation in the Police Force in 2010:

The video highlights that, based on the data provided by the above-mentioned table, the total number of police personnel present in the force in the year 2010 were 1580311. Out of these, the total Muslim police personnel were only 109262, which formed only a 6.91% of the total police force. Jammu and Kashmir accounted for a majority of these Muslim police personnel, as 44457 out of the total 109262 Muslim police force were found there only. hence, if we took out the Muslim police force of Jammu and Kashmir, only 64805 Muslim individuals were a part of the police force, which formed a mere 4.31% of the total police force.

The video then reports the news article published by the print in November 2021, which had analysed the Tata Trusts’ study named ‘India Justice Report.’ The said report, published in October 2019, provided that the Muslim representation in Indian police has “remained consistently low” at 3 to 4 per cent. The report also provided that since 2013, the National Crimes Records Bureau annual report has ceased reporting the level of Muslim representation in the police.

The video then states that from the data provided above, it can be fairly deduced that the number of Muslims present in the police force is almost equivalent to zero. 

The video can be viewed here:

The Sachar Committee report of November, 2006 had also pointed to the poor representation of Muslims in various government services and recommended having Muslim officers at top positions in police stations as a way to build confidence among the population which may have a high concentration of Muslims.

While government statistics were not available, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had had raised concerns over the abysmal representation of minority communities in the city’s police force following the death of two Muslims in the police firing at an anti- Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in Mangaluru on December 19, 2020. 

As per the data provided, published on On Manorama, which had been sourced from the Mangaluru City Police (MCP) website, it was depicted that 605 personnel work in 15 police stations (Law and Order). No Muslim or Christian figured in seven key positions – one Commissioner, two Deputy Commissioners and four Assistant Commissioners – in the force. Of the remaining 598 positions, 575 posts, or 95.37%, had been occupied by the members of the Hindu community. These included inspectors, sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors and constables. The city police force had just 14 Muslims and 9 Christians. This constituted just 3.47% of the force’s total strength. According to the census of 2011, the two communities form 35% of Mangaluru’s population (Muslims form 23.85%, Christians 11.14%).

De-sensitized police force

A direct issue which is attached to the police force being limited to the Hindu upper caste is that a deep-rooted bias remains within our police force against India’s religious minorities. A study presented by the Common Cause- Centre for the study of developing societies (CSDS), Lokneeti had revealed disturbing prejudices of police personnel towards Muslims on the question of committing violence. The study has also highlighted the prejudicial attitudes in the incidents of mob violence. The idea behind the study titled ‘Status of Policing in India Report 2019’, was to “offer policy-oriented insights into the conditions in which Indian police works.”

The report highlights a disturbingly evident bias in attitudes towards Muslims as a community when it came to the question of committing crimes. It observed, “When we looked at what the police personnel think about various communities, the data indicated a significant bias against Muslims. However, no such prejudices were reported against people from SC or ST communities. About half of the police personnel reported that Muslims are likely to be naturally prone towards committing violence (‘very much’ and ‘somewhat’ combined). We observed similar trend in the reverse direction as well, with a smaller number of police personnel likely to report that Muslims are less likely to be naturally prone at committing violence as compared to people from various caste-groups”.

A deeper analysis of the said report can be read here.

Image Courtesy: news18.com

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