Title: Indian Police As I See
Author: Kiran Bedi
Publisher: Sterling Publishers
Pages: 154
Dr. Kiran Bedi is the former highest ranking woman police officer in India. She joined the Indian Police Service in 1972 and remained in service for 35 years before taking voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General of Police, Bureau of Police Research and Development. In this inspiring memoir she recounts her own experiences in her police life. The back cover blurb describes the book as, “From the holy city of Amritsar, India, to the Mecca of international peace, The United Nations…. an inspiring journey of the first woman in the Indian Police Service!”
The author’s stature
To speak more about the author, Kiran Bedi, she became the national junior tennis champion in 1966 in her teenage years - between 1965 and 1978, she won several titles at national and state-level championships. After joining the Indian Police Service, Bedi served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Mizoram. She started her career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, and won the President’s Police Medal in 1979. Next, she moved to West Delhi, where she brought a reduction in crimes against women.
During her police service, she undertook a number of tough assignments ranging from Traffic Commissioner of New Delhi, Deputy Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Chandigarh, and Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau. She influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas of control over narcotics, traffic management, and VIP security.
Her campaign against drug abuse evolved into the Navjyoti Delhi Police Foundation (renamed to Navjyoti India Foundation in 2007), and in 1994 she set up India Vision Foundation which works in the field of police reforms, prison reforms, women empowerment and rural and community development.
After appointing as Inspector General of Prisons, Tihar Jail, Delhi in 1993 (until 1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, initiating several measures such as detoxification programs, yoga, vipassana meditation, literary programs and prisoner complaints.
She also worked with the United Nations in New York as the Police Advisor to the Secretary General, in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations, for which she was awarded a UN medal. She represented India in International forums on crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reforms and women’s issues. Her efforts to prevent crime, reform prisons, end drug abuse, and support women’s causes earned her a Roman Magsaysay Award in 1994, and then became the nominee of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Forty-five chapters
‘Indian Police As I See’ consists of 45 chapters - mostly three pages for a chapter. She starts the first chapter, ‘A Day of Gratitude’, like this: “Are we aware of what Police Commemoration Day is? I suspect not much is known about it.”
She writes, “Every year, over 1000 police personnel die on duty. And hardly anyone of them gets recognition. They remain mere numbers, the unsung heroes – the unknown police persons who were destined to die.”
Here, she turns readers’ attention to some of the aspects of police service that we normally don’t see. The Following is how she describes the police person’s life:
“Today, a police person is isolated, neglected, ignored, deprived, insecure, tired and constantly under accusation. If s/he is honest and brave, s/he is alone and vulnerable, When s/he is dies, the family suffers alone and the country forgets her/him and declares it a professional hazard for which s/he has been paid.”
Her observations on police persons are very much relevant to Sri Lanka, because we also take the sacrifices of policemen for granted. So her views on police service are valuable for us as well.
Meditation course
In the second chapter titled ‘Internal Policing’, she elaborates on how she introduced the Vipassana meditation course to the police. She first describes disgruntled feelings of police men and women. Then, asks what the remedy for this is?
“The remedy was the technique of meditation called Vipassana, which means to ‘look at oneself in a special way’. This comprises ancient Indian wisdom, known to our seers and sages, but which was lost for many centuries, to be rediscovered by Gautama, the Buddha. It was through the practice of Vipassana that Gautama, the prince, became the Buddha.”
Then, she goes on to say how she was successful in her effort to bring Vipassana meditation into practice among police persons:
“One of the senior officers, who was amongst the meditators, confessed before all of his students that he was an alcoholic, and he had realised that it was wrong. The senior police officers (the same ones who had talked of insensitive units and limp handshakes) now motivated their students to take up the course. And the students responded with great enthusiasm, and went on to do the course. No wonder, over 6,000 police officers, both men and women, in Delhi Police have till date (December 2002) done the course.”
We know that Indian society is based on their religion: mostly it is Hinduism. But Kiran Bedi was successful in making use of Vipassana meditation which is a component of Buddhism, amongst the Hindu people, which is remarkable.
Realistic thinking
Bedi’s understanding on police service is always very realistic:
“When I had joined police training, I saw no difference between the prisoners and the police officers. Both were in a prison of their own making. And both were seeking freedom! This is why Vipassana was brought into police training as well.” (Page 7)
The highly admirable thing about Bedi’s thinking is that she always takes things in a wide perspective. Here, she thinks that the root course of policemen and women’s disappointment is their inner confusion. So, she made use of some religious practices in solving practical problems among police persons.
In chapter 31 titled ‘Where are the Wives of policemen?’, the author directs our eyes to the wives of policemen.
“Mostly, policemen’s homes are run by their wives, as is known. Police officers are away from home for many weeks and months. As fathers they rarely have time to nurture or groom their children. When home they are in desperate need of rest themselves. They are there only physically, not mentally.”
She suggests how to get rid of this problem. She says that there should be a good welfare budget for policemen’s families. In that budget, it needs to ensure that “all policemen’s families are covered on a need basis, not on the basis of dependence but for the purpose of ‘self help’, be it schooling for children, housing, vocational training, self help support groups, adolescent counselling, and even economic empowerment.” (Page 102)
The 43rd chapter titled ‘The Preparedness to Disasters!’ presents how we should be alert for natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides and diseases such as SARS and AIDS. At the time of the book written, there wasn’t a pandemic as Covid-19, but she describes how to face that kind of pandemic as well.
“The point I am making is that we are increasingly witnessing a period of ‘Developing Disasters.’ We may have serious limitations in the prevention of natural disasters but can at least develop more reliable and better response mechanisms (human and technological), by which we can be forewarned and forearmed.”
Here, she explains the way we prepare for disasters, especially from the police point of view. So this is a thought provoking and inspiring book written in a matter of fact style. As the book cover suggests, this is a persistent effort to encourage greater awareness about various social and ethical issues in the Police services with the hope to invoke, provoke, and inspire readers to heightened levels of sensitivity, participation, and response.