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TN police tops country in diversity, Kerala in rural reach: Tata Trusts report

The Tamil Nadu police has topped the country, amongst large and mid sized states, in terms of diversity in its forces. With an overall score of 6.49 out of 10, the TN police beat states including Uttarakhand, Punjab and Maharashtra to secure the top position.  Other southern states including Karnataka (rank 6), Kerala (rank 13), Andhra Pradesh (rank 5) and Telangana (rank 11) scored 5.32, 4.43, 5.36 and 4.86 respectively. 

The study conducted by Tata Trusts ranked the states based on factors such as filling up vacancies, representation of women in the force and reservation to ensure diversity, amongst other criteria. Police forces were studied between 2012 and 2016. The study found that overall, states and union territories are improving in terms of women representation in the police, but regressing in filling vacancies and in increasing spends on the police in the same ratio as total state expenditure.

As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the state has improved in terms of total number of women in the police force, the number of women officers and in reducing constable vacancy. The study however predicts that it will take another 43 years for the state to reach the ideal ratio of 33% women in the forces. Karnataka and Kerala are expected to take 120 and 30 years respectively to achieve the same target.

Meanwhile, according to the report,  Karnataka is the only state to have very nearly filled officer-level reservations in caste categories. Nationally, a majority of states are unable to meet their declared caste quotas. Only six states and UTs—Daman and Diu, Meghalaya, Goa, Manipur, Gujarat and Kerala—had managed to meet or exceed their SC quota. Similarly, only Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Bihar, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana had managed to reach or exceed their ST quotas and only Meghalaya, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Assam and Karnataka had met their declared OBC quotas.

When it comes to SC, ST and OBC categories, Tamil Nadu’s vacancies are at 39%, 24% and 10% respectively.  Karnataka meets its set reservation in ST and OBC categories and has only 4% vacancy for the SC category. Kerala meets its SC category reservation while ST and OBC stands at 44% and 25%. Telangana meets criteria in ST and OBC reservations and has 21% vacancy for SC category. And finally Andhra Pradesh meets OBC reservation which has been set but falls short by 14% and 18% in SC and ST categories.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana were also among the States which had given reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes category. And in terms of rural police station coverage, the best performing states were Kerala (79 sq. km per rural police station), Bihar (125 sq. km) and Tamil Nadu (155 sq. km). 

Source: The News Minute