The police and the departments

Do you remember the forms of government from Part 1? In a democracy the people choose their leaders in elections. In a monarchy power stays in one family and passes from king or queen to child. In a theocracy religious leaders rule according to religious texts. In a dictatorship one person holds all the power, often taken by force. In an oligarchy a small group of rich or powerful people holds it. In a democracy like India, the government is expected to work for everyone's wellbeing and protect our rights and freedoms.

You have seen the police in daily life and in films. Are they part of the government? What do they do? Do citizens have any say over them?

In India the police keep law and order in each state. They are part of the state government (think of Kerala Police or Maharashtra Police) and work directly with people in towns, cities and villages.

The police are agents of the state: here 'state' means the State in the big sense, the whole political organisation, not just one state government. They may legally use force to keep people safe from crime and violence. Pause on that: almost nobody else in a country is allowed to use force. That is exactly why there must be limits on it.

Their work has three sides:

• Law and order: keeping towns, cities and villages safe.
• Fighting crime: investigating cases with the courts, prisons and the rest of the justice system.
• Social change: awareness programmes on road safety, drug abuse and women's safety.

But the police must respect and protect the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. And citizens do have a say over them, in two ways. People vote for the state government, and the state government runs the police. And if the police break someone's rights, the police can be taken to court and must answer for it.

The chapter's diagram shows how it fits together:

• The people elect leaders to represent them in the legislature.
• The police, part of the executive, enforce the law, keep the peace, protect citizens, and investigate cases and present them to the judiciary.
• The Constitution, laws and courts protect people's rights and make sure there is justice.

Government departments (like education, health or transport) are part of the executive: they carry out the policies and laws made by the legislature, and the judiciary makes sure the laws are followed. Legislature, executive and judiciary are the three pillars of government.

In daily life we mostly deal with the executive's departments (a clerk, a teacher, a constable) far more often than with a law-maker or a judge. In some countries the three pillars are kept separate; in others they overlap.