Unsafe Mumbai

The recent rape of a photo-journalist has exposed chinks in the armour of Mumbai police

Like many Mumbaikars, I have been noticing the sharp fall in the policing standards in the metropolis. The recent rape of a photo-journalist, murder of journalist J Dey in broad day light, terror attacks and attacks on women in commuter trains just shows that policing and intelligence gathering in the city has come to a standstill.

One of the main reasons behind the policing crisis is the influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh into the city and lack of any records on new entrants to the city.  The entire construction business in Mumbai is run by construction workers from out of state workers and mainly from Bangla Desh as labour shortage threatens to delay many projects.

A human trafficking racket, involving politicians, mafia and police, is fuelling crime in the city.  These new migrants are potential vote banks hence nobody touches them. A complete absence of foot patrolling – one of the best methods to control crime on the streets across the world – has been abandoned many years ago.  Now cops move around in bikes and they hardly have any clue on what’s going on in their beats.

Try dialing the emergency number 100 from your home or mobile phone and you will be connected after many attempts.
Many a times, I had to text the police commissioner for small offenses like late night hooliganism with loud speakers on the streets as police down the line failed to react.

The recent incident of a photo-journalist has just exposed the chinks in the armour of Mumbai police.  Till just a few years ago, Mumbai police was well known for preventing of crime and of course detection of crime. But now the police are making news for all the wrong reasons.

But to be fair to the cops, they are overwhelmed with growing population, low salaries, irregular working hours and lack of housing.  As salaries of cops are very low, they tend to get corrupt.  Right from cops posted at traffic signals to cops on the beat duty, a common citizen gets a first-hand experience of corruption.

So what’s the solution? Apart from long term solutions raising salaries and giving better housing to cops, Maharashtra can look at setting up a new department in Mumbai police which will investigate crime against women. Foot patrolling should be restarted immediately and CCTVs at all buildings should be made mandatory.  

Already many high net worth individuals are buying properties abroad due to lack of security in the city. Till now, it’s a trickle. Hope it will not be a deluge.