EVERY CONSTABLE IS A POTENTION CHANDRU GAWAS by Juino De Souza (Courtesy Herald)

PANJIM: “I was made to polish and tie the shoe laces of my boss”- Panjim constable

We begin with a day in the life of an ordinary constable in the Goa Police and on a day when one of them, Chandru Gawas has died, after consuming poison, because he could not handle the alleged harassment from his seniors.

If a lower level police constable were to write a personal dairy, this is what a page from any one day of that diary may read.

“Wake up to my boss’s wife calling me to drop the children to school on a police jeep. Get abused for coming late. Rush the children to school. Reach police station. Boss flings files at me for no reason. Abuses me and my family and orders a 5000 rupee deduction from my salary. Get to the police rest room late in the evening. The bed sheets are stinking. There is no water. The toilet is unusable. Go to the ground floor toilet. The urinals are full and overflowing. Tomorrow is another day. Will have to polish the bosses’ shoes properly or will get punished further”

This isn’t a fictional account but just a summary of various experiences that the lowest in the Goa Police faces on a daily basis. Herald spoke to many policemen, visited their barracks and rest rooms and heard stories first hand.

80 per cent of the police force are the most abused, least cared for and exploited under the guise of discipline and duty.  They are reportedly verbally abused by police officers and they cannot do a thing due to strict rules of so-called discipline within the force. “Our good work is never recognized, nobody cares for our welfare. We have to take the brunt and suffer verbal abuse at the hands of our officers. It is the mood of the police inspector that calls the shots. If he is in a bad mood then he unleashes his temper on us and sometimes even files are flung on the floor. We are often punished severely for small mistakes. Instead of issuing a warning letter or a memo, our increments are stopped and amounts up to Rs. 5000- from salary is deducted by the district superintendent of police,: said one policeman.

Constables’ work hours are much against established labour laws and living facilities shockingly far from those used by humans. “We are expected to perform duties for 12 to 16 hours on a daily basis. The dormitory type rest room at  the Panjim police station which is also shared by the staff of the Panaji traffic cell is hopelessly insufficient. “We want more space, extra fans, mattresses with clean bedsheets, filtered drinking water, proper toilet and bathing facilities with adequate water supply,” they request.  Same was the story at the Porvorim police station where the rest room is mosquito infested and the adjoining toilet unusable. “We have to use the ground floor toilet facility which has just two filthy urinals,” constables narrate their woes.  

A posting at Goa’s flagship police station at Panjim is a nightmare  “No constable is willing to be posted here as the work is heavy and rewards none”, said a head constable.

Abusing constables for personal work of higher police officers is not new. “There are times when we accompany officers’ children to and from school in police jeeps. On one occasion, I was made to polish and tie the shoe laces of my boss,” remarked one constable.  

The policemen have no internal union or an association that can redress their grievances. After all, the people who they should take their grievances to are the cause of them.