India’s police force continues to suffer from severe staffing gaps, reveals the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025. As of January 2023, there is a 23% national shortfall, with 28% vacancies among officers and 21% among constables. Despite over 33,000 new posts created between 2022 and 2023, actual recruitment has not kept pace, revealing a persistent gap in filling key positions.
IJR is a collaborative effort undertaken in partnership with DAKSH - a Bengaluru-based think-tank, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Common Cause, Centre for Social Justice, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and TISS-Prayas. IJR tracks improvements and persisting deficits in each state's structural and financial capacity to deliver justice based on quantitative measurements of budgets, human resources, infrastructure, workload, and diversity across police, judiciary, prisons, legal aid and Human Rights Commissions for all 36 states and Union Territories.
Among the states, the report shows that Tamil Nadu has declined steadily in police capacity rankings, from being number one in 2019 to thirteenth in 2025. According to IJR 2025, which was released on April 15, the state’s fall is attributed to a persistent shortfall in women's help desks at police stations, reduced services on its citizen portal, and fewer police stations equipped with CCTV cameras than the national average of 83%. Meanwhile, Telangana retained its top spot among states with a population of more than 10 million, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, all of which have consistently ranked in the top ten since 2019. Among small states, Sikkim led the list, while Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Rajasthan continued to occupy the bottom three despite marginal improvements in fund utilisation and digital services.
Women in police
Further, when it comes to women in the police force, it is just 12.3%, far below the government’s advisory benchmark of 33%. Among larger states, Bihar leads with 24% women, followed by Andhra Pradesh (22%). In Tamil Nadu, which has the highest number of exclusive women police stations (222), only 34% of police stations have women’s help desks.
Though multiple MHA advisories have recommended three women Sub-Inspectors (SI) and 10 women constables in each police station, with little change over 2022, except Delhi, no state/UT meets this benchmark for Sls.
Caste quotas still elusive in police forces
According to the report, only Karnataka meets its quota across SC, ST, and OBC categories for both officers and constables. Most states underperformed in fulfilling caste quotas, particularly for SC officers. In ST representation, even states with high tribal populations like Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have significant shortfalls.
While 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Manipur, fulfilled their SC quotas at the constable level, states like Haryana, Goa, and Assam reported shortfalls exceeding 30%, with Assam’s gap at a staggering 71%.
For ST representation, while states like Bihar, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh showed encouraging progress across ranks, others lag far behind. Nagaland, despite a 100% ST reservation policy, has a 31% shortfall among constables. Punjab, which has a 25% ST quota, shockingly reported only three ST officers in total, translating to a 99.8% shortfall. Similarly, OBC quotas remain unmet in several states; Manipur has filled only 6% of its OBC officer posts, far from its quota of 100%.
Infrastructure: CCTVs & women’s help desks
Only 83% of police stations have at least one CCTV camera, up from 73% in 2022, but still not meeting the Supreme Court's 2020 guidelines. Some states, like Manipur (4%), Lakshadweep, and Puducherry, lack coverage almost entirely. However, women’s help desks have increased nationally, now in 78% of stations, with urban areas (91%) faring better than rural ones. However, states like Jharkhand, Meghalaya, and Tamil Nadu still have less than 60% coverage.
Meanwhile, India’s forensic infrastructure is severely understaffed. Nearly 50% of sanctioned posts lie vacant in forensic labs. Telangana leads with 91% scientific staff vacancies, followed by Bihar (85%) and Uttarakhand (80%). On the administrative side, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka also show high vacancies. Kerala stands out with near full staffing—0% administrative and just 4% scientific vacancies.
Further, though police receive the highest share among justice sectors, training remains underfunded. In 2021–22, only 1.25% of the total police budget was spent on training, with six states and UTs showing the allocation for training as ‘0’. These states are Kerala, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
India’s prisons are more overcrowded
India’s prison system is buckling under the weight of overcrowding, chronic understaffing, and a spiralling undertrial population. The report reveals that over the last decade, the number of people in prison rose by 49% (from 3.8 lakh in 2012 to 5.7 lakh in 2022), while prison capacity grew by just 27%.
At the end of 2022, 55% of Indian prisons were overcrowded, with 89 jails operating at over 250% occupancy and 12 crossing 400%. Muradabad District Prison in Uttar Pradesh led the list with an alarming 497% occupancy. Even smaller states like Delhi and West Bengal had facilities operating at over 400% of their capacity.
Undertrials: The elephant in the room
Undertrial prisoners now make up 76% of the prison population, up from 66% in 2012. In 301 prisons, every inmate was an undertrial. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra accounted for 42% of all undertrials in the country. Alarmingly, nearly 11,448 undertrials have spent more than five years in pre-trial detention, a number that has tripled since 2012.
The report also pointed out that undertrials now constitute over three-fourths of all prisoners. The report projects that by 2030, India’s prison population will exceed 6.88 lakh, while the sanctioned capacity will be only 5.15 lakh. The population of undertrials alone is expected to rise from 4.34 lakh in 2022 to over 5.26 lakh by 2030. The result is going to be a worsening burden on already overstretched cadre staff. While the Model Prison Manual recommends one staff member per six inmates, the actual ratio is projected to climb to 12 inmates per staff by 2030 in some states.
It is pertinent to note that India spends Rs 121 per prisoner per day, with massive variations across states. Andhra Pradesh leads with Rs 733, while Maharashtra and Mizoram spend just Rs 47 and Rs 5, respectively. In Karnataka, it is Rs 104 and Rs 149 in Kerala, while it is Rs 91 and Rs 125 in Telangana and Tamil Nadu, respectively.
Of the Rs 8,725 crore budget sanctioned for prisons in 2022–23, 23 states/UTS utilised over 90%. Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh used 100% of the funds.
Staff shortages and medical gaps
Vacancies in prison staff have persisted for over a decade, with an average 30% of posts unfilled in 2022, with medical staffing even worse. The Model Prison Manual recommends one doctor per 300 inmates; India averages one for 775 inmates, with 41% of doctor posts vacant.
Mental healthcare remains woefully neglected, with 69 sanctioned psychologists/psychiatrists across all prisons and only 25 actually in service—one for every 22,929 prisoners. Only Tamil Nadu comes close to acceptable standards, but even here, the ratio is 1:1,638.
Further, despite a 40% increase in the number of women prisoners over the decade, women staff remain vastly underrepresented—only 13% of the workforce in 2022. Only Mizoram (34.5%) met the 33% benchmark. Karnataka (32.9%) came close. A disturbing 20 states had less than 10% women among prison staff, and 19 states/UTs had no female doctors at all.
Segregation in prison
Caste-based segregation and discriminatory assignment of duties were flagged as ongoing issues. While the NCRB’s Prisons Statistics India provides the breakup of prison populations by caste, religion and tribe, it does not record disaggregated data on prison staff by social groups. In a significant move, the Supreme Court struck down caste-based rules in prison manuals in 2024, calling them indirectly discriminatory. The Home Ministry followed up with an advisory urging states to amend such provisions.
Reform and rehabilitation—key goals of the Model Prison Manual 2016—remain largely unimplemented. In 2022, only 6% of the 18 lakh people who passed through prisons received any education, and just 2% were given vocational training. Despite increasing investments and a renewed policy push with the Model Prisons Act 2023, Indian prisons remain plagued by outdated infrastructure, systemic understaffing, and punitive over rehabilitative mindsets.