For every one lakh people in Bihar, there are just about 81 police officials in the state on an average, making it stand last in the police-population ratio, official data analysed by News18 shows.
The police-population ratio is the number of police officers per one lakh people in a given area. The data from the Union Home Ministry, sourced from Bureau of Police Research & Development, shows that across India, the average sanctioned police per lakh population stood at 197 but, in reality, it is 155. The population for the calculation was based on the 2011 census as of October 2022.
The latest data, as on January 1, 2023, shows that at 1,136 police officials per lakh population, Nagaland was at the top of the list, although the sanctioned strength in the state is 1,201 police officials per lakh population. Only two — Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1,050) — had police-population ratio above 1,000.
As per the ministry, there are no universal standards to assess the optimal level of police force in a country. The organisational structure of the police forces varies from country to country as do the functions and tasks assigned to them. The number of policemen required is dependent on several variables like volume of crime, societal structures, use of technology and local problems.
As shown in the graph, Bihar has a sanctioned strength of 115 police officials for every one lakh people but is functioning with just 81. The police strength keeps changing almost every year with officials retiring and joining the force.
Uttarakhand, across India, has the closest sanctioned and actual strength of police per lakh population. The state has sanctioned strength of 193 police for every one lakh people and is functioning with 184.
This gap is widest in Mizoram. The sanctioned strength of police per lakh population is 917 but, in reality, there are only 595, although the strength is better than several bigger states.
In national capital Delhi, the sanctioned strength of the police population ratio is 445 and only 380 officials are available.
In West Bengal, as against 167 police officials sanctioned, 101 are functional on the ground for every one lakh population.
A total of 11 states/UTs have a police-population ratio below the country’s average. The list included Bihar (81); Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (94); West Bengal (101); Rajasthan (118); Odisha (121); Madhya Pradesh (121); Gujarat (124); Uttar Pradesh (135); Maharashtra (137); Kerala (151) and Karnataka (151).
In an ideal situation, in India, as per the sanctioned strength, there should be 197 police persons per one lakh population on average. And each police official will have a population load of 508 people on average. But in reality, each police official is dealing with 646 people and for every one lakh population there are just 155 police persons.
The data also shows that in Bihar, each police official is responsible for 1,227 people – highest in the country and almost double of national average. As per the sanctioned load, each Bihar police official is responsible for only 873 people. Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (1,068) is another part of the country where one police official is responsible for over 1,000 people. The sanctioned load is 877.
In Nagaland, each police official is responsible for 88 people, as against a sanctioned load of 83. Apart from Nagaland, A & N Islands (95) is the only other state/UT where a police person has a population load of below 100.
In 17 states/UTs, one police official is responsible for more than 508 people, as against the national sanctioned average.
Across India, the sanctioned strength of state police forces is 27.23 lakh and only 21.41 lakh positions are filled — a vacancy of 5.81 lakh. Uttar Pradesh, where each police person has a load of 739 people as against sanctioned load of 576, has the highest vacancy at 1.09 lakh. The state has 135 police officials for every one lakh population.
In terms of posts vacant in police, Maharashtra is second with 60,583 posts vacant. Each police official in Maharashtra has a population load of 731 against 541 sanctioned and the police-population ratio is 137.
West Bengal (65,072) and Bihar (41,686) held the next two positions. Only four states had more than 40,000 posts vacant in police.
Law and order is a state subject and policing falls under the jurisdiction of the respective states. The Union government maintains and controls policing of UTs and also maintains the specialised policing agencies in the broader category for special purposes.
