Mumbai Police recently appointed a team of housewives as undercover detectives, trained to spot and help nab rapists and molesters. While this move has been well appreciated by former police commissioners and experts, it also tells a very different story about the city’s police force and its resources.

Once considered to be a mine of information across Indian security agencies, Mumbai Police has been struggling to maintain a healthy information network. Earlier, the force would depend on the police-public relationship and a network of khabris (informers) to source its info. However, with the existing police-public ratio having dropped to one policeman for 829 people (according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development, under the Ministry of Home Affairs), the police are now searching for new operatives, such as street dwellers and locals.