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Panchayat-like arbitration of police condemned

Practice is inequitable and in favour of powerful: SHRC chief
Last Updated 05 May 2015, 18:33 IST

Meera Saxena, Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), accused the Police of taking the role of a Panchayat-like arbitrator, which is inequitable and in favour of the powerful.

She was speaking at a training programme on ‘Gender Sensitisation’, organised by the National Human Rights Commission, United Nations Women, Centre for Social Research, New Delhi, and Karnataka Police Academy, Mysuru, held here on Tuesday..

Taking a jibe at the remarks made by Raghavendra H Auradkar, Additional Director General of Police, Recruitment and Training, Bengaluru, that the Police are transforming from “law enforcers to facilitators and service providers”, she said, Police have turned to arbitrating cases in Police Station, which is the domain of the judiciary. “Such arbitrations invariably side with the wealthy than poor, and men than women,” she said.

She said, since the SHRC was set up in 2007, about 50,000 complaints have been received, of which only 60 per cent are maintainable. “Out of these complaints, 50 per cent are against the Police. The Police are walking a tight rope, as they are expected to deliver as soon as a crime occurs. Under such anxiety and pressure, Police tend to make mistakes and resort to illegal detention, torture, etc,” she said.

Criticising the police for targetting transgenders, she said, sexual preferences of the policemen should not be a concern to the police.

“Police cannot ill-treat them just because they do not conform to the police’s idea of sexuality,” she said.

Rebecca Reichmann Tavares, Representative of UN Women, said, the bi-polarity based on gender in contemporary society, seen across the world, is condemnable. In such a situation, Police should be a force that a women can trust and turn to and they require to be considered impartial and trustworthy, she said.

In India, she said, there is conviction in only one in four cases of sexual violence cases. She blamed delay by police in filing FIRs, faulty investigation practices, indifferent and gruelling prosecution of the victim, as causes for the same.

She said, women police stations are important in this regard, so that it would be possible for victims to avoid being quizzed with uncomfortable questions by male personnel. She said, it is also important to avoid gender bias, which was based on a faulty social construct.

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(Published 05 May 2015, 18:33 IST)

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