Mangaluru: For every daughter her father is her hero, to be precise her ‘super hero’. My sister and I were no different. The feeling of super hero was ‘super imposed’ may be because my father was in the police department- donning Khaki. We thought he bashed up the rogues and people clapped at his rare feat, as it happens in Bollywood flicks. All in all, we were so proud to say that our dad was a cop, till we understood that we were living in a world far…far… far away from the truth.
The police personnel who are assigned with the work of maintaining peace and order in the state are left in lurch and are now protesting against the harassment by senior officers in the name of discipline, scanty salary, no proper leave and other issues faced on the professional front.
Well, over the last 27 years I have seen my father experience all of this and more. Though he has been recently promoted as Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI) at Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), he worked as a constable and then as a Head Constable most of his life and even a promotion has not changed his working conditions much. I, now as an adult daughter of a police personnel know that he and all his colleagues are mere ‘punching bags’ in the department and not a ‘super hero’ at all.
Today, as a working woman, I wonder if I would have clung on to the job and the dignity with the kind of work environment that was given to him.
A number of times I myself witnessed him hearing abuses and slangs from his higher ups at the police stations or over the phone. |I have seen Dad and his colleagues carry vegetables or other groceries to the residences of the higher officials. Many are made to work as domestic helps too. I have seen the higher officials’ families treat the Constables like doormats. I have seen how kids of higher officials address the senior constables by name and hurl abuses if the work done does not match up to their expectation. I have seen how ‘slavery’ and ‘oppression’ lives on with each and every salute of the constables and the Head Constables. As an insulted child I had cried before my father and pleaded him to quit, but he always had a way to explain to me why it was important for him to stay on.
After all this and more, my ‘Super Hero’ used to be ready before sunrise, donning his uniform for the call of duty somewhere miles away from home, which always hijacked us from this beautiful feeling of spending time together as a family.
Quitting was never an option for him. It was not just our family that needed him to toil, but he was the one who was taking care of his parents who lived in his native village. Daddy practically toiled for two families, whose needs were never ending. Two growing up kids and their expenses and two aging parents and their medical expenses- the cost of living only increased, while earning of the husband and the wife remained constant.
I remember spending my childhood in a tiny police quarters, which was just enough for the four of us. We squeezed in and lived there because Daddy’s salary was not enough to buy us even a single bedroom flat in a city like Mangaluru. My mother is a government school teacher and thank god for that, because her salary was a big solace to the family, with conditions applied. As a government teacher, there were times when mummy’s salary never came for about three to four months!
The quarters undoubtedly gave us shelter, but every monsoon, we would make an extra prayer to God for our safety. Most of the big tumblers in the kitchen used to be strategically placed in the house to collect water that leaked into the house. Night outs were many, as the water used to trickle down from the walls, drenching the cotton mattresses laid out on the floor. Irregular electricity and shortage of water was an everyday woe for the police families living in the quarters.
Growing up without the father around is a difficult scenario for any child. My birthday pictures and photographs of special celebrations have always been incomplete without his presence. We as family had to be happy with Daddy’ wishes through telegrams or post cards, which we used to preserve. Expensive clothes, bags, shoes etc etc etc had only been a dream, because at the end of the month Mummy had to do complex accounts where income had to match the expenses.
Posted on check posts on border areas or on outstation duty, our family faced the acid test when he was posted in the region where dreaded sandalwood smuggler Veerappan was reigning. With news of Veerappan mercilessly massacring people hitting headlines of newspaper almost every day, we had no option but to kneel down before God for daddy’s well-being.
Our joy during his short leaves was also short-lived because often he had to cut short the holiday and return on emergency posting. I have seen him work for 15 hours a day, without break, that too without even basic facilities. During certain posting the policemen make hand-made thatches for shelter, but they continue to serve without complaining.
Today he is 57-years-old and has tonnes of health issues but while youngsters back out from taking outstation postings, this man still continues to work on the check-post duties in the border states. Not just my father, several of his colleagues too are suffering from chronic health issues like blood pressure, heart related ailments and high stress level. But, they stay put.
Our little world changed only when I started working and earning a good sum. Thank fully we have moved out of the quarters to our own house now, but my heart goes out to all the members of the state constabulary who continue to live in the dilapidated quarters and face the unchanging reality.
They say, police department is the disciplined force and they do not have constitutional right to protest, but then, does the constitution not speak of equal rights and opportunity for all, dignity of labour and dignity of life as well. I say, when deprived of these rights any human being has the right to protest as well. The constabulary is demanding for what rightfully belongs to them.
Being a media professional I completely stand by with the decision of the cops of going on mass leave. A recent report in a newspaper stated that as per Ministry of Home, Karnataka ranks second in South India and fifth in India in police suicides. Guess, it is time for government to wake up and act.
