'Police in India put up with long working hours without offs'

Police in India put up with long and irregular working hours without offs with more than 68 per cent Station House Officers (SHOs) and over 76 per cent supervisory officers and other personnel remaining on duty for 11 hours or more every day, a study has said.
According to the study sponsored by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, nearly 90 per cent of police station staff across the states and the various types of police stations, currently work for more than eight hours a day.
"Further, according to more than 68 per cent of SHOs and over 76 per cent of supervisory officers, staff members of their police stations have to remain on duty for 11 hours or more per day.

"27.7 per cent SHOs and 30.4 per cent supervisory officers even reported that their staff worked for more than 14 hours a day," says the study, 'National Requirement of Manpower for 8-Hour Shifts in Police Stations'.
More than 73.6 per cent of police station staff indicated that they were not able to avail weekly offs even once a month.
Though the SHOs were guarded in their responses on this aspect, yet nearly 60 per cent of them confirmed that their staff were either not able to avail weekly offs even once a month or could avail do so, at the most, once or twice a month.

"What makes the situation even worse is that most (over 80 per cent) of the staff are commonly recalled to duty during their off time to deal with emergencies of law and order, VIP bandobasts or other matters.
"A majority of SHOs also confirmed this trend. The situation of inordinately long and irregular working hours for police station staff is, thus, quite serious," the study says.