Mumbai: Mumbai police force, deemed one of the best in the country, seems to be insufficient for the protection and well-being of its citizens, according to a recent report published by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Praja Foundation. Praja’s annual report reveals a rise in the number of cases of rape, outraging the modesty of women and riots recorded last year in Mumbai.
There has also been a 19 per cent increase in cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the report points out.
The report also highlights a shortage of personnel in Mumbai police department, with an overall shortage of 22 per cent in the police force as of July 2018. There is a shortage of investigating personnel like assistant police sub-inspectors, police sub-inspectors, assistant police inspectors and police inspectors — a shortfall of 33 per cent, 35 per cent, 32 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.
The decrease in the police force indicates severe impact on the efficiency of policing in Mumbai, said Milind Mhaske, director at Praja Foundation. The data shows that for 2018, the number of sanctioned police personnel posts is 50,652 however only 39,588 police personnel are working, with a shortage of 11,064 in the police force.
Showing a similar shortage in the other branches of the Mumbai police like Special branch, CID, crime branch, control room and traffic personnel, there is a gap of 37 per cent between police personnel sanctioned and actually working in 2018 with not even single department having met its requirement of sanctioned posts. In a probable cause of the shortfall, the data released by the Praja Foundation has painted a disturbing picture of an increasingly unsafe city, especially for women and children.
When data from for 2014 and 2018 was compared, it revealed that south Mumbai has observed a whopping 172 per cent rise in the number of rape cases registered, followed by north-east Mumbai at 99 per cent and north Mumbai by 98 per cent. The cases of sexual offences against minors also saw a 19 per cent rise, from 891 cases in 2016 to 1,062 cases in 2017-18.
The highest numbers of criminal cases registered in Mumbai were confined to North Central Mumbai — Vile Parle, Kurla and Bandra, in the last five years. Cases of rape, theft, riots have risen in this part, according to the findings of NGO Praja. There is a rising trend in cases of outraging the modesty of a woman in the northern parts of Mumbai like Kandivli, Andheri, Malad and Goregaon.
The report has also slammed the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which publishes the Crime in India (CII) report annually, for not having published its annual report since 2016. Other crimes like murder, housebreaking, chainsnatching and thefts showed a slight dip in 2018 as compared to the corresponding figures for 2013-14, said the report.
