CHENNAI: When colleagues saw 48-year-old Sathish Kumar, a head constable, at the police station last Friday evening, he seemed upset, but did not say anything. The next day his mutilated body was found on the rail tracks in Kancheepuram. After initially believing his death to be the result of an accident, police investigating came to the conclusion that Sathish had allegedly leaped in front of the train, leaving behind his wife, who is six months pregnant.
Sathish is the fifth police personnel to have allegedly committed suicide from Chennai and Kancheepuram in just the last three months. According to data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Tamil Nadu has 166 police personnel have committed suicide in Tamil Nadu between 2010 and 2014, the highest in the country. As many as 161 have ended their lives in Maharashtra and 61 in Kerala. While, often the immediate trigger for such deaths is assumed to be workplace pressure or harassment from a superior officer, of late officials are attributing some of these deaths to disturbed personal lives. However, Express has found that it often the stresses of the job, long hours, poor pay and lack for adequate grievance redressal or mental health supports that in turn spill over into the personal life of the Tamil Nadu police personnel.
Long working hours
While most salaried persons in organised sectors can expect regular working hours, time off duty, vacation and other benefits, the Tamil Nadu policeman can expect none of that. There are shifts and time records but only on paper —the police personnel work beyond their scheduled duty time, more often than not. This, obviously affects their family life. “I reach the station by 8am and return home by 10 pm at least twice a week — this is the earliest I get home. On other days, I reach by 11pm or midnight by which time my entire family has gone to bed. I rush back early on two days just so I can spend at least half an hour with my family,” a sub-inspector, attached to a law and order station in Chennai, said on conditions of anonymity.
“So far, I have never attended any of my children’s sports day or annual day events. The last time I took my son for a movie was one and a half months ago. Because of this, there are fights at home almost every other day, but I cannot afford to bring this stress to the station,” the sub-inspector said. “We end up working more than 10 to 12 hours a day. During a crisis we are forced to work for two or three days without break and no appropriate compensation is given,” said a Kannan, a city police officer attached to the crime division.
Seconding this, a constable pointed out that although his shift timing was 9pm to 7am, he had to return to duty, six hours later, at 1 pm and work till 9pm and then again from 7am to 1 pm. “In such shifts not only is the sleep pattern affected but we also suffer a loss of appetite and develop health issues. While on duty, we have to sleep on the roadside and do without proper toilet facilities,” says the constable.
Leave is another issue. “Sometimes the thought of bowing to a higher police officer, who may be much younger and less experienced than me, is uncomfortable. I applied two weeks in advance for two days’ leave to attend my nephew’s wedding. On the day before the wedding, I was asked to the head a team for CM’s bandobast,” laments Albert Raj, who retired four months ago.
One reason for the long work hours is that the service, in Tamil Nadu, is short-staffed. As Selva Nagarathinam, joint superintendent of police, Thoothukudi, puts it, “Currently, 1,25,000 policemen are sanctioned to be serving across the state, however, only 1,02,000 are appointed. But, for a population of about 8 crore (as in Tamil Nadu) at least 2 lakh policemen are needed.”
Work pressure
Police on the job face pressure from virtually every quarter — politicians, superior officers, lawyers, and members of the public. While police highhandedness against civilians has come under fire, the stress of being under scrutiny has added to work pressure. Lower-ranked officials are found to be more depressed compared to the higher-ups. In the recent deaths, all were below the rank of sub-inspectors.
Worse, the much-loathed orderly system is still in vogue in many places with lower grade officers being forced to work at the houses of their superior officials and perform menial tasks such as buying vegetables or being drivers for the family.
“The subordinates and lower-ranked police personnel are like workers at the house of zamindars in the early British era. They live under the shadow of their superiors, forgetting their own family. This in turn reflects in their behaviour towards the public,” said a senior police officer.A head constable recalls the impact such a work situation had on him. “When I joined duty, I was sent to clean my senior officer’s house. His five-year-old daughter would call me by name and order me around. But I could not complain nor refuse to work. This led to depression,” says the head constable.
Cost of duty
During the 2017-18 budget the state government allotted the police department `1,483 crore and `282 crore for the prison department. “But most of the funds in the budget is only an eyewash. The personnel are not benefited by this budget,” says an office bearer of the Tamil Nadu constabulary association.
According to official data, the Tamil Nadu’s police personnel are the worst paid among the southern states. As per 2016 statistics from Bureau of Police Research and Development, the worst affected are constables to deputy superintendents of police. For instance a traffic policeman in Telangana draws up to Rs 80,000 depending on seniority. This is 30 per cent more than what his counterpart in TN gets. “I have been in service for 33 years and get a salary of Rs 59,000, whereas a constable gets Rs 38,000,” says a sub-inspector in the city.
No pressure valves
Most of the police personnel Express spoke to attributed suicidal ideation and stress among the force to the failure of the grievance system. “Currently, the grievances are addressed in an open hall which itself is a drawback,” Shanmugavel, Intelligence Service. A retired police officer also attributes the crisis to the lack of leadership qualities among some senior officers. “They treat juniors harshly, without understanding the practical constraints of field officers. During training programmes, it is ensured that personnel undergo training in psychology. But this is focused on criminal psychology not on support for their own mental health,” he adds.
Worse, a senior police officer admits that complaints from low-ranked personnel, especially from female personnel, including regarding leave, extra working hours or highhanded behaviour of superiors, are never taken seriously.
The way forward
Unsurprisingly then, police personnel struggle to have a decent family life. The police department, of late, has tried to support personnel by making yoga classes, meditation and personality classes mandatory. But this has not proven to be a long-term solution. “If given a choice, most of the personnel would skip such classes. Instead, following a democratic view would be helpful. Getting suggestions on their interest will definitely make a change. For instance, setting up a gym or a library or allowing them to go for a walk during their break,” suggests Nagarathinam.
City police also have started rewarding police personnel for their work. “Though, it’s a small token of appreciation, it encourages them to do better,” a senior officer in the city assures. Some other organisations have tried to innovate the support offered based on what personnel require. “From conducting programmes with police personnel in Madurai, we learnt that they are prone to suffer stress mainly because of long working hours and harassment from senior officials.
Apart from this, when they miss out on family functions or are unable to spend time with their families, they face conflict at home. They turn to habits like smoking and consumption of tobacco. So we decided to involve their family members also in the programmes just to help them understand the environment in which the personnel are working and their service to society. This has had a better impact,” says Dr K S P Janardhan Babu, director- programmes, M S Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation.However, filling vacancies, regulating work hours and providing regular leave and mental health supports may be the sustainable way forward.
Death of a policeman
* Arunraj (25), police constable posted in Jaya’s memorial. Shot himself with .303 rifle on March 4
* Sathish Kumar (28), Sub-Inspector in Ayanavaram police station. Allegedly shot himself on March 7
* Subbaiah (53), Inspector in Prohibition Enforcement Wing. Collapsed on March 27 during the defense expo after spending five days continuously on duty
* Joseph (24), SSI at Korukkupet police station. Found hanging from a tree on Kasimedu beach on April 24
* Sathish Kumar (42), Grade-1 police driver. Found dead on the railway track in Nathapettai on May 13
* Balamurugan (28), police constable in Injambakkam police station. Found hanging at his house on May 14