In India, one civil police personnel is available for 831 people. File | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphotos

The 2025 India Justice Report (IJR) released by the Indian Government on Tuesday (April 15, 2025) reveals that there are fewer than 1,000 women in senior positions among the 20.3 lakh personnel in the police force.

Not a single State or Union Territory has met their own reserved quotas for women in the police, according to IJR 2025 — the country’s only ranking of States on the delivery of justice.

The IJR 2025, initiated by Tata Trusts and supported by several civil society organisations and data partners, tracked the performance of States across four areas — Police, Judiciary, Prisons and Legal Aid.

The report noted that Uttar Pradesh has the most overcrowded prisons, adding that more than half of the High Court Judges are missing in the State.

Opinion | Push for more women, this time in the police

The report said that 91% of Delhi’s prison population consisted of under-trials.

T.N. tops in prison management

Tamil Nadu retained its top position in managing prisons, with increased budget allocation and 100% utilisation. The State has among the lowest staff vacancies in prisons nationwide, it stated, adding that with 22 inmates per officer, it has the best officer workload among all large States.

But the State’s rank in policing fell from 3 in 2024 to 13, owing to poor performance on budgetary and training indicators. The report added that T.N. continues to fare poorly in legal aid, dropping from 12th to 16th position with low budgets and fewer paralegal volunteers.

Karnataka is the only State that met quotas in both Police and Judiciary, the IJR said.

Explained | What the 2022 India Justice Report said about India’s police forces

Bihar has the highest share of women in State police. But he trial and district courts in the State has 71% cases pending for more than 3 years.

Gujarat has highest vacancies in High Court Judges and staff, revealed the report.

The IJR 2025 also said that about 17% of police stations in the country do not have a single CCTV. Nearly three in 10 police stations do not have women help desks.

The national per capita spend on legal aid, is a meagre ₹6 per annum.

The national per capita spent on prisons is ₹57. In 2022-23, the national average spend per prisoner has increased to ₹44,110 from ₹38,028 in 2021-22 Andhra Pradesh records the highest annual spend on a prisoner at ₹2,67,673.

The national per capita expenditure on the judiciary stands at ₹182. No State in India spent more than 1% of its total annual expenditure on the Judiciary.

The national per capita spend on police is at ₹1,275 which is the highest among the four pillars.

In India, one civil police personnel is available for 831 people, the report said.

Arunachal Pradesh, which set up it’s State human rights commission in 2023, doesn’t have a functional website for the same, till now, said the report.