Security in Indian cities is bleak. And the future is even bleaker as the situation will only deteriorate in years to come. This ominous note of caution was struck in News Delhi last week by G. K. Pillai, former Union Home Secretary, at the FICCI conference on S&T for Homeland Security-2011: ‘Safe and Secure City’.
Pillai said that with the country experiencing a high growth rate of 8 per cent, aspirations of the people are rising and millions of them are teeming into cities, giving rise to increasing crime rate because of the absence of employment opportunities.
In Delhi, for instance, 82 per cent of crime is perpetrated by first timers, that too by 16 to 26 years old. New types of criminal activities are spawning such as cyber crimes, hacking, thefts, snatchings, while rape, murder and vehicle thefts are the order of the day.
He said that new technologies being inducted to make safe and secure cities would have to have to be employment-intensive as job creation was the key to make the youth shun crime and violence. It is essential for India to grow at 9-10 per cent for the next two to three decades, else social tensions and the attendant problems will be difficult to manage, Mr. Pillai added.
Making Cities Safe
The Home Ministry, on its part, is identifying 14 cities in the country to make them safe and secure, in the first phase of the programme to beef up homeland security. States, he said, had a major role to play in this programme, for which, the Central Government will provide 50 per cent of the funding requirements.
Earlier, the former Home Secretary released FICCI-Ernst & Young knowledge paper on ‘Building Safe and Secure Indian Cities -A perspective’. Pillai cautioned against radicalisation of youth as this would make them turn to anti-social activities. He also warned of ghettoisation of cities arising out of the practice of not giving houses on rent to a person belonging to one community by the other community.
He called upon the business community to bid for government procurement of security equipment in a spirit of cooperation and not to indulge in under-cutting competition. Industry must identify the essential specifications of technologies and abide by them so that the Government is able to choose the most appropriate technology provider from a group of companies.
The two-day conference is discussing various facets of security such as Safe & Secure Cities: Reality or Myth, Urban Planning, City Security through Technology, Indian Private Security Market and its Regulation and Framework for a Secure City.
