Pro-poor agenda and enforcement deviation
Lacking sensitisation.
PROFESSED and published declarations to improve the lot of the poor people, particularly in developing societies, are an integral part of the political-economic programme. Some international organizations have pronounced pro-poor agenda that aim at socio-economic empowerment of the downtrodden, particularly the women and children of distressed localities. A significant factor in such scheme of things is the behaviour and performance of police, now considered an important institutional link in development process. In the above scenario, it is rather unfortunate that the linkage between desirable law enforcement and socio-economic development has not drawn the appropriate attention. There is a common complaint that law enforcement administration has not been accorded the deserved priority and that resources commensurate with its importance are very difficult to come by. It is an admittedly discouraging phenomenon that in distressed and deprived areas of poorer countries, the police's deviant behaviour determines allocation of property rights, however temporary that may be. Police delinquency in such environment carries the danger of increasing the uncertainty of the property rights of the very poor. The compounding tragedy in such circumstances is that the aforementioned rights are quite often threatened by intimidating actions of the well-off and the local criminals. In circumstances as above, there is perhaps a need to look into the relations between police malfeasance and development-shaping process. One needs to know if eruptions of violence and development are interlinked. It should engage the attention of the political class for obvious reasons of survival. In neighbouring India the role of the police was the subject of extensive modernization analysis in 1969. A disconcerting ground reality of developing societies is that while police is sensitive towards signals sent by high-ups in respect of defending the elite, it would not be desirably prompt in responding to the distress calls of the numerically large poor. Such behaviour will undoubtedly adversely affect the pro-poor socio-economic agenda. Herein lies the crucial impact of selective law enforcement caused by deviant sub-culture. The situation demands remedial action. Coming to specifics, it has been seen from experience in neighbouring India that the police function of acquiring crime related information created scope for police corruption. Extorting the poor living in large slum clusters did not register serious protest until very late in the sordid transaction. The need here is, amongst others, a strong sensitization of enforcement personnel and the prime requirement is in rural areas where the complaint redressal mechanism is weak. The poor are a helpless lot here. We have to remember that the slum dwellers are not, as a class, criminals or terrorists. They are mostly ordinary, law abiding and simple folks, eking out an existence. All neighbourhood have their share of anti-social elements and crooks. It has to be borne in mind that only under difficult circumstances a person leaves the protective social network of his home environment. The question is one of survival. It needs to be remembered that police corruption often adversely impacts the growth and sustenance of rural poor through the alleged extortionist practices in the transport sector. In addition, it has a negative impact on foreign direct investment. The corruption hits lower income groups harder. Regulatory and corrective institution like police has to control and take care of their malfeasances. The tax paying citizens will suffer if pro-poor agendas are stifled by enforcement indiscretions. We must not let a situation develop where the only alternative will be to entertain pious wishes for a change in political leadership. Muhammad Nurul Huda is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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