DEVELOPING A HUMAN RIGHTS SENSITIZATION PROGRAMME FOR POLICE
*G S Bajpai
Department of Criminology & Forensic Science
Dr H S Gour University, Sagar (MP)
Abstract
Human Rights training for police are gaining ground these days. Police perception vis-à-vis human rights are seldom positive. Resultantly, the police tend to get prejudiced or indifferent in the human rights law enforcement. The training, therefore, need to be so directed as to bring necessary change in perception of the police for human rights. Owing to the lack of knowledge and information of human rights laws and directives, the police are often caught on the wrong foot in facing the issues of human rights. The present paper is modest attempt to develop a package of systematic police training in human rights for police officials. The results reported in the paper are based on the experiences of interaction with the trainee police officials in a police training institution.
It is almost truism to state that despite having been in constant focus and discussion, the spirit of Human Rights could not be fully imbibed by the police forces in India(Krishnamurthy,1994). It is evident from the frequent allegations of Human Rights violations against the police (Batra, 1984, Desai,1986). Violations of Human Rights by any segment of society, does not mean that they are worth-less. Infect, the society is currently passing through the crisis of Human Rights. Immediate priorities must be attended to in accordance with their urgency but the Human Rights ought to be the guiding principle. If the system is to be sustained and human dignity is to be preserved, long-term strategies would be needed to facilitate what we can call the 'culture of Human Rights'.
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In so far as the inculcation of relevant Human Rights values in police is concerned, the training approach has not been very well directed. In fact, there is need to consider several factors before any training programme is started. The basic police out-look vis-à-vis Human Rights does not seem to be very positive and hence the police hardly remain amenable for any effective training intervention in this area. Obviously, to make training meaningful, some myths prevailing in the minds of police personnel will have to be dispelled.
Felt Needs
Looking at the existing structure and conduct of training programmes for police officials on Human Rights, following issues come up quite prominently.
1. The need to develop a correct concept of Human Rights among the police officials.
2. The need to emphasize the importance of Human Rights and its implications for policing.
3. The need to make the police aware of various developments taking place in the area of Human Rights.
4. The need to dispel myths and misgivings regarding the impact of Human Rights on
police functioning and required attitudinal changes in the perception and out-look of the police force through training.
A look at above - mentioned matters, makes it obvious that the role of training can go
a long way in actualizing these requirements. This brings us to evolve a need oriented
short - term training curriculum for the police officials on this subject.
Human Rights Sensitization Programme - The Blue Print
Taking all the training requirements in to cognizance, it is proposed to evolve a Human Rights sensitization programme (HRSP) for various police ranks.
The Human Rights Sensitization Programme has been conceived and proposed to be executed in accordance with the principles of modern training methodology. The Human Rights Sensitization Programme shall be cyclical and interactive process comprising the following phases - (i) research, (ii) construction of training module, (iii) execution of training and (iv) evaluation and research.
Human Rights Sensitization Programme is intended to be a dynamic package with carefully designed method of execution. Various parameters of this package would be in accordance with the group of trainees to be covered. Relevant phases in this process are as under:
Phase - I Index of Human Rights Sensitization Programme
In order to decide relevant inputs for the trainees, the existing level of awareness, nature of perceptions and attitudes of subjects towards Human Rights would be measured so that the areas requiring attention could be identified for the required training intervention. In other words, this first phase of programme will involve some research exercise with the trainees.
(a) Tool for measuring the trainees perception and attitude
Two types of tools have specially been devised to measure the variables. The first tool is a five-point scale comprising various Human Rights - related situations. The participants would be asked to respond to this tool by furnishing their responses regarding the items indicated in this tool. The second tool is a document comprising objective types of questions relating to Human Rights.
The result achieved by this study would not only highlight the nature of existing attitudes and perceptions of trainees about Human Rights but also display the level of their factual awareness about Human Rights provisions.
Phase - II: Identification of inputs and development of curriculum
On the basis of findings emerged and discussions held with the participants in the preliminary phase, a comprehensive curriculum is proposed to be devised. It would involve a logically categorized and meaningfully sequenced list of subjects to be covered in the training interaction.
Considering the overall requirement of the trainees not only the topics would be chosen but also issues and problems to be discussed under each topic would be formulated so that the instructor concerned delivers what is indeed required.
Phase - III Execution of Human Rights Sensitization Programme
The relevant details of this operational phase are as under:
(a) Duration: It would be a two weeks programme to be conducted in two stages. After completing first seven days, there will be a monitoring programme through which the results obtained by the initial training would be studied for further action and improvement.
(b) Methodology: It would be incumbent upon the instructor to clarify in the beginning as to what is to be achieved by a particular input. Participatory learning through seminar method would be preferred strategy. The instructors would be encouraged to use relevant audio-visual aids, films and case studies to conduct their classes.
Phase - IV Evaluation:
After all the planned inputs, the two tools (measuring the Awareness and Attitude) will again be exercised on the participants to know the exact quantitative and qualitative difference experienced by them. The scores obtained by the participants would clearly indicate the impact of training exposure undergone by them. The most striking feature of the Human Rights Sensitization Programme lies in the fact that one would come to know immediately as to whether the training objectives have been achieved or not. Besides, this strategy would also provide a chance to plug the loopholes, if any, in the Human Rights Sensitization Programme. This process will continue until the package achieves desired perfection.
In the end of the programme, the results of the study conducted before the training and after the training could be compiled and circulate to the concerned authorities including the trainees so that they can perceptively understand the changes occurred in their outlook and response on account of the Human Rights Sensitization Programme.
Human Rights Sensitization Programme in Action
In the preceding paragraphs methodological details regarding the proposed HRSP have been delineated. This package has been put in to action and the results achieved by this exercise are being discussed in this part of the paper.
The setting
As many as 40 police officers holding the rank of Assistant Sub Inspector, who were undergoing their Upper School training in the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, were targeted for this exercise. The average age group of respondents was 30-45 years. They had on average 20 to 30 years of service experience in the police department.
Conduct of Research
The respondents were asked to respond to two types of tools (i) Measurement of Attitudes (ii) Human Rights Awareness Test. The results of the two exercises are indicated below-
(A) Measurement of Attitude (Phase-I)
In the wake of many crucial happenings, the issue of Human Rights in Punjab has been snowballed into a serious controversy. The general feeling was that the police in this state have yet to identify themselves with the significance of Human Rights and their observance.
Responses collected from 40 respondents regarding 29 items are shown in Table - 1. Table provides an interesting profile of findings. It is indeed a picture of conflict, ambivalence, ambiguity and even rhetoric and psudo - idealism on the part of respondents. In respect of certain straightforward statements, respondents tried to toe the idealistic line but later they contradicted themselves saying many things contrary to their own responses. A few responses are worth analyzing.
In most instances the respondents exhibited considerable conformity with the statements depicting the observance of due process, significance of Human Rights, need to check Human Rights violation by police and many other matters showing justness in the police procedure. The statement number: two, four, five, six, fourteen, seventeen, twenty-one fall in this category. Logically speaking, the one who adheres such type of viewpoints cannot think of any view - point, which would be against the spirit of Human Rights. But the respondents in the course of present exercise have shown such type of attitudinal tendency which in a way, contradicted their earlier view- points.
It is, for instance, noticeable that despite having said ('strongly Agree' or 'Agree'), policing strictly by law and procedure' (N=36), 'Police denial to constitutional rights illegal' (N=31), Arrestee to be produced before Magistrate within 24 hrs. (N=38), 'Human dignity to arrestee' (N=33) etc., the respondents observed 'Police would face problems, if inform about arrest to the arrestee's family members' (N=19). No medical aid to arrestee ' (N=34), Human Rights violation un -stoppable during pre-trial stage' (N=21), 'senior police officers to overlook Human Rights violation' (N= 33), 'Extra-legal measures are justified in emergency situations' (N=13).
Human Rights Awareness Test (HRAT)
The police today are increasingly being expected to conform to the principles of Human Rights in discharging of their duties. This expectation will remain only a dream without knowing the level of awareness often results in developing incorrect perception and undesirable acts. Basically the police forces in India comprise a huge chunk of constabulary (around 70 percent), which cannot be considered highly educated and sensitive to the social needs and expectations. The lower and middle levels in the police forces are highly crucial from the viewpoint of Human Rights because they directly come into contact with general public while discharging their duties. An attempt has been made in this exercise to assess the level of Human Rights awareness among the police officials. A tool comprising five components viz; development at National level, Constitutional, Legal, Factual Awareness, and Procedural was designed which entailed objective type of questions pertaining to these categories. The total marks of this test were 50.
Table 2 shows the details of obtained by the respondents in the Human Rights awareness test. The scores obtained by the respondents clearly depict an extremely low level of awareness regarding Human Rights. 47.5 percent (N=19) police officials could only score 0-10 marks and the same number of official scored 11-20 marks. There were only two officials in the category of 21-30 marks while the other higher categories of marks remained un-represented.
Table- 3 presents the level of awareness (in terms of scores) of the respondents in various areas. The total questions asked in the HRAT are grouped into five components as indicated in the Table. Most respondents (N=40) could score only 0-2 marks regarding 'developments in the areas of Human Rights at the national level'. Similarly, a very large number of respondents (N=38 and 36) were not at all very well conversant with the constitutional and legal safeguards relating to the protection of Human Rights as they could only score 0-2 marks in these two components. As many as 11 respondents scored 0-2 marks in 'factual awareness regarding Human Rights' while 14 respondents scored 6-7 marks in this category. 'Procedural knowledge relating to Human Rights' was found comparatively better as 15 respondents scored 3-5 marks 8 marks, 8 respondents obtained 6-7 marks and 3 respondents scored +8 marks whereas 14 respondents scored 0-2 in this category.
Discussion :
The two tests carried out on the sample of police officials vividly brings it out that :
1. there was considerable contradiction and ambiguity in the attitudes of police officials vis-à-vis Human Rights observance. It can safely be conclude that, in many instances, they tried to glass over their negative attitudes towards the observance of Human Rights,
2. The level of awareness in respect of Human Rights provisions among the respondents was far from being satisfactory, going by the scores attained by them they did nor have been the basic information and knowledge about these subjects. It is despite the fact that the officials had completed 20-30 years of their service.
(B) Identification of inputs and development of curriculum (Phase - II)
In the lights of the study, the areas requiring training attention were identified. In order to refurnish the knowledge of the participants, inputs in the following areas were given in a week time.
1. Constitutional aspects of Human Rights.
2. Development regarding Human Rights at the national level.
3. Legal and procedural aspects.
4. Factual information.
(C) Evaluation (Phase III)
Having conducted the sessions of aforementioned inputs, the participants were again asked to respond the same tests (Attitude Measurements and Awareness Test)
The main findings of this phase are as under
1. Having attended to the training inputs, the respondents did not give any conflicting or contradictory answer. The ambiguities and distortion noticed in their attitudes in the first phase of the study (Table I) have not been noticed in this phase of the study. A positive trend in their attitude towards Human Rights was also discernible.
2. The participants scored much higher in the second phase of HRAT. Their level of awareness regarding Human Rights was much improved in this phase of study. As many as, 28 participants scored 21-40 marks, as against 2, in the previous phase of the study.