No doubt that the seven directives given by the supreme court in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case form a strong basis for long-pending police reforms towards depoliticisation and restructuring of India's internal security setup.

However, it was disappointing to see that none of the directives address the key point of sensitisation of police forces towards fundamental human rights and policing ethics. Incidents of police forces violating basic rights of citizens are a daily affair in India, a recent one reported from Jalpaiguri, West Bengal where during a search operation, 2 ITBP personnel molested the wife of a shop-owner. Many such incidents of abuse of power by police forces are common in this country. They are reported and forgotten daily. What we should all be more concerned about is the trend of apathy from the police and government authorities in cognizance of such cases. Due to this, image of the Indian police force has hit a new low, actually rock bottom. There is a dire need to curb this growing trend if we need to call ourselves the greatest democracy of the world and maybe someday may feel secure seeing a cop in our proximity. Lessons on fundamental human rights, ethical policing and of course, specific references to the punishments under various sections of Indian Penal Code for committing violations must be included in the training programme of police personnel of the states as well as central police organisations.

National Human Rights Commission, in association with IGNOU, recently launched a 5-days online training programme on human rights for police personnel, which is a welcome step in this direction. I hope this becomes a milestone in overall image recovery of our policing setup but the programme should not only be intended to impart knowledge on human rights to police forces but also sensitise them to take a moral and ethical stand in such cases. Of course, education is an important tool but the historical data shows that more laws are broken by those who already are well-educated on the penal actions under those laws. So, there is a need to imbibe that sense and pride of doing ethical policing and protecting citizens, which may put the Indian police on the pedestal of being one of the best internal security force of the world and they should take pride in that.

Here is a seven-point agenda for such reforms in police training:

1. Ministry of home affairs should form a committee on "Police Training Reforms on Ethics and Human Rights", which should comprise of experts from National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women, Law Commission of India and National Police Commission, and social and civil rights experts from public domain

2. Committee should develop a specialised course, which should comprise of the lessons on, but not limited to, the following:
a) Moral education
b) Policing ethics
c) Sensitisation towards various regional cultures of India (a must for central police organisations)
d) Fundamental rights of Indian citizens
e) Women's rights
f) Protection of children and women under various Acts of Indian constitution
g) Punishments under Indian Penal Code for various violation

3). A "model code of ethical policing" must be framed based upon above lessons learnt for all state and central police organisations.

4). All personnel below the rank of police inspector must undergo this specialized training and pass a test before joining the forces. The test may comprise of a written exam as well as a viva/interview. On failing the test, they need to go through the training and test again (with maximum 3 attempts allowed). Passing this test must be made mandatory for joining the service for all personnel of the rank of police inspector and below.

5). The above course may be customised for the officers of the rank of DSP with more focus on motivating their subordinates to achieve full compliance to the "model code of ethical policing"

6). Officers of the IPS cadres at district level (SSP, SP, Addl SP/ASP) must conduct an annual Workshop on "model code of ethical policing" for their subordinates of the rank of DSP and below. Police station in-charge in turn should conduct a workshop in their respective police stations and submit a report on the same to the district SSP/SP.

7). A presidential medal for ethical policing and governor's medal for ethical policing should be introduced for the personnel for exemplary compliance or extraordinary contribution towards the implementation of model code of ethical policing.

I believe that this framework may be a good first step towards the dream of a citizen-friendly police force.