A lack sleep, irregular meals, low incomes and poor working conditions are some of the reasons attributed to higher stress levels among police personnel, according to a study conducted by INNLIVE research wing.
The study, which interviewed over 300 constables, inspectors and police personnel of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, has outlined that inspectors have the highest level of stress followed by officers and constables.
During the study, the policemen describe their job as “unlimited and unpredictable” with “insufficient sleep hours and irregular meals” which render their lifestyle extremely exhausting and unpredictable.
The study was recently published in Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. It pointed out that around 90 per cent of the police personnel were under stress to due high levels of accountability and political interference, 80 per cent of them were stressed due to long and odd work hours, frequent transfers and postings, 70 per cent of them due to change in priorities, due to political shakiness, difficulty in sanctioning of leaves, role conflict between “being family person” versus “police person,” adjusting with seniors and not being able to spend time with their family.
“A major source of stress was factors such as frequent transfers, slow promotions, fear of suspension and punishment, difficulty in getting leave sanctions, insufficient staff and dis-satisfactory work distribution. Although constables were found to experience overall stress lesser than inspectors and officers, they were significantly most stressed up in the areas of environmental stress, travelling away from the organisation and work overload,” the study said.
“As many as 80 per cent of the constables felt that at their office the working conditions were very unpleasant due to the absence of indispensable facilities like proper toilets, drinking water and refreshment. They were most stressed in this area with 70 per cent of them feeling strained while commuting their workplace against 30 per cent of inspectors and 10 per cent of officers. They had to use their own conveyance like bicycles or motorcycles for official purposes for which they were not given allowances promptly,” it said.
In addition, to these findings the qualitative analysis revealed that constables felt more hassled than the inspectors and officers due to low salary structure, lack of housing and medical facilities and their inability to fulfill the demands of their families.
Moreover, there were more than 50 per cent of constables who sense their work hours as very long, they had to go for two work shifts consecutively and they were unable to spend time with their families. “They also face difficulty in adjusting with their bosses who were usually inspectors. They often feel that they were punished by their seniors without any proper inquiry and did not have any platform where they can express themselves,” the study said.
No comments:
Post a Comment