P Chidambaram gets it wrong on urban crime

The Union home minister P Chidambaram’s somewhat ill-considered remark about migrants being responsible for urban crime is more an attempt at pop psychology than any meaningful explanation for the series of vicious gang rapes which the national capital has seen in the past few weeks.

It may be true that in the shock meeting between rural and urban sensibilities, some conflict is likely but it is also true that this meeting has been happening since the beginning of human civilisation.

What is far more likely is that, given the rise in crime across all Indian cities, it is our police forces that have not kept up with the times and changing demands of an upwardly mobile society. Ordinary policing is the most neglected — taken up as it is along with VIP arrangements, internal and external terrorism and festival ‘bandobasts’. As cities grow and population pressures increase, India needs a police force that is modern, well-equipped, and geared towards these changes.

The clamour for police reforms is ignored by most states, which share responsibility for law and order under the Constitution. As several experts have pointed out with anguish, our penal codes and police structures have not moved out of the colonial era, which means that they are old-fashioned, inadequate, and unfair.

The failure here is of urban governance and it is imperative that the government understands that urban growth is not just about infrastructure but about making cities more liveable for its residents. There is still no effective use of forensics for instance, to assist in the speedy solving of crimes.

Our police personnel at the ground level are not trained to cope with the changes wrought upon Indian society by economic liberalisation and social awareness. At the higher levels, we have seen too many instances of senior officers misusing their positions to add to their personal wealth.

If that is the standard set at the top, it is not surprising that the bottom is rotten.

Urban crime requires diligence, manpower, information and awareness if it is to be tackled properly.

All too often, the knee-jerk reaction is to create more stringent laws. But that is hardly a solution if the policing itself is shoddy and weak. The problem has to be tackled where it begins —  at the police station when a complainant goes to file a First Information Report. If the Union home minister is serious about urban crime, then he needs to start at the bottom and work his way up, regardless of whether he is dealing with new migrants or long-time residents.