All roads leads to Police stations !!

Ninglun Hanghal *

A Training on security for North East citizens by Delhi Police :: 07 March 2013

The 'high level' committee constituted by the previous UPA Government's -Union Home Ministry to look into the issues of the North East populations living in Delhi and other metro cities of India submitted their report recently to the Minster of State for Home. The committee was constituted in the aftermath of the uproar over the death of Nido Tania, the 19 year old student from Arunachal Pradesh on January 30 this year.

In the initial formation, though the committee had faced stiff opposition by the NE protesters, it somehow managed to sail through and completed the task, which was delayed due to the general election.

The four terms of reference of the committee were
(i) To examine the various kinds of concerns, including the concerns regarding security of the persons hailing from the North Eastern States.
(ii) To examine the causes behind the attacks/violence and discrimination against the people from the North-Eastern States.
(iii) To suggest measures to be taken by the Government to address these concerns.
(iv) To suggest legal remedies to address these concerns.

While the report is believed to be a secret document ( meaning not made public) according to (the leaks) the media reports, the key findings, observations and subsequent recommendations for solutions appears to culminate on the police and policing. Thus recruiting the NE youths into the Police force came out prominently as a suggestive measure.

No doubt this would prove to be very effective, provided only if the police as a system and organization functions effectively. Even when the youths were not recruited, many of them as volunteers, activist have been working with the police , under a separate Nodal Officer for NE.

Truly, what the north eastern population needs is a job. And most of the NE people migrated to metro cities for jobs. Many of the NE were employed in private, government and public sectors across the country, especially in Delhi.

Each and every one face discrimination and abuse in one way or the other; from people working in high collar jobs to domestic helpers. None of the NE women in Delhi will be without a story of lewd comments, remarks or something to say about the attitude of the "mainland".

As it stands, unfortunately the North East Populations in these metro cities seems to be caught and involved in matters related to "crimes" alone. News paper reports sections will also fall in the category of "crime".

The Delhi Police record over 500 cases between February to June alone. The statistics is not flattering at all. More-over for a population of about only one lakh or so the data is quite alarming.

What is important is how can the number of crime cases in the police stations be minimized? How can we have lesser number of cases!! And we all know that none of the NE cases are disposed off until now!!

It may be added that Crime against the NE is not only about murder or rape, it is about attitude and manifestations of a patriarchal mindset aggravated by Class and Caste denominator in the Mainland Indian society.

Even as I write this one of the most reputed newspaper in India (The Hindu) published the story of the High Level Home Ministry Committee report on July 16, along with a map showing all the NE states with wrong labels ( names of states in the wrong location) And I don’t think such grave mistakes could possibly be corrected by police and policing!!