Why AAP's 'Citizen security force' sounds like a bad idea

AAP’s manifesto for the Delhi Assembly which was released yesterday, spoke of a Citizen’s Security Force that would help provide security to anyone in distress with special focus on women, children and senior citizens. The lack of specifications around this ‘Force’ has obviously raised fears around whether AAP intends to start an alternate armed vigilante justice system which would protect women. Add to that there are worries that a Citizen Security Force would end up being a moral police and could end up restricting women’s freedom. Yesterday Firstpost spoke to AAP candidate from RK Puram Shazia Ilmi who said that the idea behind the force was to create a legal helpline for women in distress who could reach out to these local bodies if they were stalked or harassed. Ilmi insists that the aim is not to moral police women but to help them out. [caption id=“attachment_1243729” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Experts feel that the AAP manifesto may be a bad idea: PTI[/caption] However according to an Indian Express report, a senior leader from AAP said that this would an armed force. The IE report doesn’t give too many details on the specifics of the Citizen Security Force other than the fact that it will help anyone in distress. The lack of specifics and the contradictory statements around the Citizen Security Force makes it even more worrying, given that the idea of this body seems to be targeted at helping women in particular. As far as the issue of providing legal assistance is concerned, experts feel that this is an interesting step and one with potential. “In principle, the aim is to provide legal assistance to women and other distressed groups is a sound idea,” says well known feminist and JNU professor Nivedita Menon. “The idea of trying to bring everyday democracy into the hands of the people which can give them some control over their lives is creative where AAP is concerned. Having a local body of trained volunteers who can help people of that locality with legal issues definitely has potential as an idea,” she added. RTI activist Prof Shekhar Singh concurs that the idea of providing legal help is interesting. “Not everyone in India can afford a lawyer. In general people getting better legal knowledge is empowering for them and providing legal help via these bodies is not a bad idea,” he said. But the lack of specifics around the framework within which such a body would work is worrying. Add to that the armed vigilante aspect and it doesn’t paint a very bright picture for AAP’s Citizen Security Force. “The Commando forces aspect is bit worrying. The fear is that sometimes these armed forces might well be the worst perpetrators of crimes against women. From a sociological perspective, we’ve always seen that when there is any kind of violence, the other party always ups the ante and the cycle of violence gets worse,” said Prof Singh. Menon also felt that the lack of specifications is cause for concern. “The lack of details around how such a body would function is worrying. We don’t know the kind of values under which such bodies would operate. If these are the dominant values, then they could end up as being repressive,” she said. In her interview with Firstpost, Ilmi also mentioned that the attempt would be to provide sound legal training to the members of this body and that they would use former bureaucrats and army personnel among others for this purpose. However that doesn’t inspire much confidence either among some women’s rights activists either. “Former bureaucrats and army personnel often have no clue what the needs of women are. The question is what kind of perspective will these Citizen Security Forces have when it comes to women’s safety. If it is the dominant, patriarchal values, then it will be of no use,” said All India Progressive Women’s Association Secretary, Kavitha Krishnan. She also pointed out that the point of armed vigilantes was something that people needed to be concerned about. The other question that remains for AAP’s Citizen Security Force is whether all groups will be represented in such a body. “Tomorrow if a sex worker raises an issue to the community, how will it respond? Will they try and protect the rights of the sex worker in question as well”, asked Krishnan. She cited the example of an incident in Ghaziabad where a girl was beaten up by a woman at a police station because she had consumed alcohol. Dominant moral values are not always gender friendly and women often face the worst brunt of not adhering to them. “There is an Aam Samjhdhari or Common sense that prevails among people which is not always constitutional. It’s not clear how such a force would function within the constitutional framework. For now, it doesn’t look like a well-thought out idea,” Krishnan added. According to Menon, the idea needs a lot more thought. “One hopes the AAP has foreseen the kind of dangers that are present in such idea and plans to work on them,” she said. Shekhar Singh however feels that the Citizen force represents a bigger problem where AAP is concerned. “Most of their ideas are not well thought out. This is a political manifesto and perhaps not one that has been thought out too carefully. The idea that all decisions will be made by a majority is problematic. For instance, a survey had shown that 52 percent of women were ok with husbands beating up their wives. Now if one were to go by that as majority opinion, then it’s deeply troubling,” he said.