Rotary Club of Bombay Conferred the Bravery Award to Police Naik Prashant Gharat and the PV Gandhi Excellence in Public Life Award to Anami Roy, Former Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. A Transcript of Mr. Roy’s Acceptance Speech.

Being in the police force or a life of civil service in the government gives us an opportunity to help and serve people, to better their lives. Those who are in the higher echelons of civil services particularly can take that one decision that can make such a difference to the lives of people. God gives you the opportunity to do this. Perhaps, when in service, you don’t realise that.

Maybe, people like you and me can find ways to get things done. But the common man, particularly in our system, faces difficulties in getting simple things accomplished which should come to you as a right.

I decided not to measure my success or efficiency by how quickly I cleared the papers in front of me. Instead, I wanted to see the impact the paper was going to make to the other person, change their lives.

One time, I had come here, to Rotary, as Police Commissioner of Mumbai, and I must have done something that had shaken or disturbed people. So, they wanted to question me. But I am looking at every common man who has the right to ask the police and government on service and system. And that does not happen. We wanted to bring in transparency.

We created a Citizen Facilitation Centre. People don’t know the basics of where to go if they want something done. The Mumbai Police Commissioner’s office issues some 27 types of licences, so create simple lines, break institutional mechanisms. The digital India initiative has changed many things. But what you need is process re-engineering. We have a ‘one-size fits all – take it or leave it’ kind of attitude. But people don’t know how to take it or not take it, so, we do process re-engineering, make things simple. Some of these initiatives had huge impact on people’s lives.

In another exercise, we called all the people who wanted security clearance for their passport. The police are supposed to do this, but it remains pending for months on end and people don’t get their passport. So, I put everyone – right from constables to the Joint Commissioner in my office and said they would not be allowed to leave the room until they had devised a system that would complete all passport enquiries in seven days. I said, ‘You are not going out till you get a solution.’ Sure enough, they did it, and we made it public.

When I saw the existing system, some 22 documents were required; I said, I can never get my passport in life. I asked, ‘Do any of you have all the documents?’ No, so, I said, write that get any two of the following 10; any one of the following 11. All verifications should be complete in seven days. I had a dashboard, and all the passports would come before me. Everything was recorded, a clerk would tell me what was pending and what was completed. This is what we need, it is not rocket science.

I want to know what it looks like from the other side. I want all the people in public service and public life need to look at themselves and their role entirely from the perspective of the other person. Is he getting what he deserves, what is his right? There is plenty being done and plenty yet to be done.

Another thing is land records; all of you must have had experience of it, buying, selling, hoarding, transferring a land or property. What a nightmare it can be; even today, our land records are not universally digitised. Why can’t we unshackle all those things? I have done experiments with this; some have met success and some not. But a lot of things depend on an individual. Institutionalisation is the biggest casualty in our system. Once the person who has taken the initiative goes, if the person who comes next is not interested, then it all collapses. Public service people are all willing to help and contribute. We created a bridge between the IT fraternity and the Mumbai police and all these giants of IT companies. You ask them one thing and they come with 10 solutions. But we have not tapped the potential for the benefit of the people. So, what you call as corporate circles and market circles, customer centricity is what we need to bring in public service and life.

Poor people, even today 62% of the population lives in slums, what is their life like? In respect to policing, what better can we offer them in terms of security? Can we make our services more accurate to them? Can anyone reach the police commissioner on the phone for their problems? Not one. That is what the situation is. Because they don’t know how. The day I took charge, I told media, the only thing you do for me is put my number in public. It is the same number that I had then, 9870170000. I said, print it; any citizen in distress can reach out to me directly. You won’t believe it, even today I get a few calls from overseas. I am in this privileged position to help others; if someone calls me, disturbs my sleep once or twice, I am fine with it. But imagine, for some poor lady in the slums to call me and complain about someone harassing her, and reaching the Commissioner directly is great.

I have had multiple opportunities and platforms, fortunately; after my retirement I was invited by the government to be at an advisory position in the government of Andhra Pradesh when the state was under President’s rule and being divided into Telangana and Andhra and elections were to be conducted. Under a President’s rule, you are like a minister. It was a new experience; I didn’t know to run multiple offices. Look at why I was chosen for that role: to give solutions. Once you get into power and a chair, I look at it as you are being chosen to get this position where you can help people do good for society. Can you imagine a cop being on board? It sounds like a joke. I also happened to be a chairman of multiple audit companies, very large companies and finance. What do you understand from that? That it is an opportunity to learn something new. Post-retirement, the journey of learning has never stopped, every day I learn something new.

What is the crux of this issue of outdated system?
Everyone has a role and if everyone sticks to their role, things would be different. A sub-in charge can also make a difference to the common man’s life, instead of talking about the law and waiting for it to be changed. If the whole world is in chaos and I can change a small thing, the whole world will be different. It is easy for me to blame a minister, but it is not going to help in anyway and that is why we are where we are. Everyone has a role to play and they can make a difference.

What exactly is the non-profit work that you do?
We run a non-profit organisation called Vandana Foundation that works in Mumbai and Vidarbha. We provide livelihood support to the people at the bottom of the pyramid. We work both in Mumbai and slums. In Vidarbha, we support women whose husbands – farmers – have committed suicide. These are women with no means of survival and livelihood. We just want to give them livelihood and, from whatever vocation she chooses, she should be able to earn for herself and her family with dignity. We help them to pick up micro-businesses and then we do what it is needed for it. We do skill-building, grants for widows. Now, we have also non-widows with us, we help them with interest-free loans. The fun of it is that we, me, and my daughter, get the satisfaction of seeing a woman grow. We have supported more than 12,000 families in Vidarbha and not a single woman fails. Some earn 200 rupees a day, others earn 2000. For them, it is the difference between life and death. Empowerment is a big word, but we just want them to stand on their feet and live with dignity. They don’t need to go to anyone and beg, borrow, or steal.

You mentioned accessibility of the Commissioner. Of late, we have seen the role of social media to directly allow the people to talk to the police force in various places of India. Does social media bridge or divide?
Access is a simple thing. Access of the public servant. A citizen must be able to communicate their grievance, and someone should respond to that, be it WhatsApp, social media. Technology, if used wisely, has a huge role in helping people get their rights. People expect the police to listen, be it through any platform. This goes even for the other fields of IT departments, corporations