Maharashtra govt discusses ways to hire forensics students

Photo for representational purpose. Picture Courtesy/iStock

With over 2,000 graduate and postgraduate students from the Government Institute of Forensic Science (GIFS) staring at an uncertain future, a high-level meeting was held at Mantralaya on Wednesday to discuss their employability. The meeting was attended by home and higher education ministers, DG State and DG (Technical and Legal), along with officials from both departments, said officials.

Though GIFS once pioneered the use of forensic science in crime scene investigations, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab have already set an example by recently hiring forensic graduates to strengthen their investigation wings.

With three institutes in Mumbai, Aurangabad and Nagpur, GIFS offers BSc and MSc courses in forensic science, apart from providing PG-diplomas specific areas of forensic science. However, most passouts continue to remain jobless.

"The purpose of this institute was that with change in time, and increase in high-tech crimes, and high-profile cases in the country, applied sciences like forensic science are acquiring wider and greater importance in the investigation of criminal acts. It was felt that the use of forensic techniques to detect and prevent crimes was crucial, especially when criminals are getting apprised of latest technology to commit crime and forensic scientists and law enforcing agencies need to be on their toes by upgrading their knowledge and skills," said a forensic expert, who did not wish to be named.

Other states doing better

"Unfortunately, other states that were lagging behind in adopting forensic science have surpassed Maharashtra. Gujarat Forensic Science University today is recognised as National Forensic Science University and it is directly under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

Also, states like Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana have already amended their service rules and started hiring graduates and postgraduates," said the expert.

Officials said Minister for Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant discussed the matter with State Home Minister Dilip Valse Patil and a meeting was organised to talk about the need for bringing a change in the service rules to provide job opportunities to GIFS students.

Amol Deshmukh, the nodal officer higher and technical education, who was present in the meeting, said, "Our request is that the forensic science laboratory and the regional forensic science laboratories across Maharashtra should come up with full-time internships and the requirement rules need to be modified accordingly. The Maharashtra police force should also come up with a special technical cadre to accommodate forensic graduates and postgraduates. Our higher and technical education minister's concern is to address the students' issues regarding employability."

About the outcome of the meeting, Deshmukh said, "The outcome of the meeting is to form a joint coordination committee for the betterment of human resources and strengthening of forensic and police Investigation."

No political will: brain behind GIFS

Dr Rukmini Krishnamurthy, a former director of State Forensic Science Laboratory who was also instrumental in setting up GIFS in 2009, said, "It was a passion to come up with a state-of-the-art institute to provide specific courses in forensics with an intention to mould young brains to understand the importance of forensic science. It was also groom them to become future forensic experts, who could work hand in hand with the police department and assist them in collecting, analysis and reporting on crucial scientific evidence collected from the crime scene, thereby helping the state in improving the conviction rate."

"Unfortunately, all efforts to get the recruitment rules amended to hire these students from GIFS, for job openings at state FSL, police department and even law and judiciary, were never taken seriously. I had personally discussed the matter and had requested the government to bring about changes in the state recruitment rules. I had even met MPSC, Law secretaries and even home officials at Mantralaya, but all efforts went in vain," she rued.

Dr Krishnamurthy said she had even mooted the idea of having at least one forensic science graduate at every police station and with every public prosecutor. "Today, we have 45 mobile forensic vehicles, every vehicle can hire these students, but we never had any political will. Moreover, it is few states like Maharashtra where the GIFS comes under the higher and technical education ministry and the entire policing is a Home subject," she said.

The expert added, "We can still do a lot provided there are attempts from students who pass out from these premier institutes to get into a large number of private forensic institutes and also look for openings at all India services, banks, insurance, etc. which have their own inhouse fraud detection department." She said a few GIFS students have entered private sectors and got jobs at companies like Helik Advisory Ltd.

Attempts to contact minister Uday Samant did not yield results.

2009
The year GIFS's first institute came up in state