A Comparative Study of Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction of the CISF, ITBP and State Police Personnel

This study aims at comparison between the quality of life and Life satisfaction of the paramilitary forces in CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police) as well as the state police force (Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh). The total sample of 744 was collected by purposive sampling method within clusters. The tools used were Comprehensive Quality of Life scale (Robert A. Cummins 1997) and Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS), developed at Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology (2001). Data was analyzed using ANOVA (One Way) for group comparisons. In the overall factual quality of Life (F-QOL), significant differences were found on the dimension of health, productivity, safety, intimacy, emotional well-being, material well-being and place in community. Material Well Being and place in community were considerably low for all the three groups. For satisfaction dimension of quality of Life (S-QOL), significant differences were found on all the dimensions of Cummins’ QOL. Though score on material well-being seems to be low on factual level it is not reflected in perceived satisfaction with the same. While the factual dimension of safety is at a relatively better position in all the three dimensions, the respective perceived satisfaction seems to be very low in CISF and State Police. In the different dimensions of Life Satisfaction, few significant differences are obtained on economic, socio spiritual and total life satisfaction scores. ITBP is the highest on total or composite satisfaction, followed by CISF and then State Police. The findings have been studied under the light of relevant literature.

an individual in person. So QOL research has witnessed a journey from being a social scientific index of the relative well-being of whole populations (a measure of the state of states) to being a measurable aspect of individual subjective experience (Rapley, 2003).

Definition and measurement of the construct of QOL
To quote Cummins, 'the quality of life construct has a complex composition, so it is perhaps not surprising that there is neither an agreed definition nor a standard form of measurement. (Cummins, 1997).
Definitional diversity is one of the main issues in Quality of Life research. So as Wolfensberger (1994) has put it, 'The term 'quality of life' is great in speeches, but when it is given the stature of a research concept, it becomes an uncertain tool unless it is controlled by a precise definition and rigorous discipline in thought and word.' Various definitions of QOL have been proposed by researchers across the world. Each definition covers a part of the total universe of the concept but somehow lacks in capturing the entire universe. Some definitions focus on quality of life in a more integrative way including a person's social and cultural context whereas others rely more on giving a more straightforward and simple understanding of it. So there is constantly a danger of either over or under -simplification of the construct. Another important aspect in the definition of QOL is the application, relevance and appeal of the concept to a lay person for whom the research is intended.
One of the most influential definitions of Quality of Life has been proposed by Cummins (1997) which is as follows: Quality of life is both subjective and objective, each axis being the aggregate of seven domains: material well-being, health, productivity, intimacy, safety, community and emotional well-being. Objective domains comprise culturally relevant measures of objective well-being. Subjective domains comprise domain satisfaction weighted by their importance to the individual. Quality of life research is being done with keeping in mind various populations like people going through various health related issues, older generation etc. In the current study, an attempt has been made to study and compare the quality of life of people working in the paramilitary forces, state police force and civilians in India.
Paramilitary forces work under the umbrella of Central Armed Police forces which include CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) and ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) These forces were set up to protect the internal security of the country as well as support the defense services in securing the borders of India. All paramilitary forces function under the purview of Ministry of Home Affairs and have different components and roles.
The duties of Central Paramilitary Forces (for example-CISF and ITBP) have grown multifold with Central intervention in assisting State Police growing in maintenance of law and order as well as detection of important crimes. The Paramilitary Forces deployed at the borders also have experienced completely changed scenario requiring continuous monitoring and effective intervention. At the micro level, paramilitary Forces also face problems of staying away from their families and social networks for a very long time. In certain areas like LWE (Left Wing Extremism) affected areas, Central Paramilitary Forces have almost taken over the frontline from the State Police Forces.

Operational definition of subjective well being-
Subjective well-being has been defined by many on the basis of their perspective derived out of the theories of happiness as mentioned above. However, from a researcher's perspective, Ed Diener's definition can be treated as a basis being the most widely respected theorist on the topic of subjective well-being. Accordingly, a person is said to have high SWB if she or he experiences life satisfaction and frequent joy and only infrequently experiences unpleasant emotions such as sadness or anger. On the other hand, a person is said to have low subjective well-being if she or he is dissatisfied with life, experiences little joy or affection and feels negative emotions such as anger or anxiety (Ed Diener, Suh & Oishi 1997).
However, in his view life satisfaction is not a mere cognitive appraisal but an offer of judgment of life that draws on two sources of information 1) Cognitive comparison with the standards of good life (contentment) and 2) Affective information from how one feels most of the time (Hedonic level of affect).

Life satisfaction
The affective components as described above reflect people's ongoing evaluations of the conditions in their lives. Such evaluations can be contrasted with the global judgments about the quality of a person's life. Individuals can examine the conditions in their lives, weigh the importance of these conditions, and then evaluate their lives on a scale ranging from dissatisfied to satisfy. This global, cognitive judgment is referred to as life satisfaction. It has been felt that most individuals do not examine all aspects of their life before weighing them appropriately since it is a complicated mental task. Instead, people are likely to use variety of short cuts while expressing satisfaction judgments. Thus, a person's prevalent mood can influence ratings of life satisfaction even though it is not indicative of one's overall level of affective well-being. It has also been argued that even with the use of short cuts, there is a substantial temporal stability in people's life satisfaction judgments. This is because much of the information that is used in making satisfaction judgment happier to be chronologically accessible. People do use their affective well-being as information when judging their life satisfaction. However, the weight that this information is given differs across individuals and cultures. For example, Suh, Diener, Oishi 1997 found that participants from individualistic cultures relied on their affective well-being to a greater extent than participants from collectivist cultures when judging their life satisfaction. People are also likely to include comparisons with important standards. Individuals have been found to look at various important life domains and compare these with a variety of comparison standards. The advantage of life satisfaction as a measure of well-being is that this type of a measure captures a global sense of well-being from the respondents own perspective, though in some cases it has also been argued that people often use whatever information is at hand at the time of judgment and sometimes it can lead to unreliable or less valid measures.
Studies on common people have revealed the above discussed observations; however the researchers were interested in studying specific populations and their QOL and Life satisfaction in the light of their occupational nature. Thus the study focused on the QOL of paramilitary forces in India (CISF, ITBP, and State Police) which are exposed to high levels of physical and psychological stresses as compared to the normal civilian population. Some facts about the paramilitary forces are given below.

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)
CISF was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1968 to provide better protection and security to Public Sector Undertakings after a devastating fire in HEC, Ranchi in 1964 in which sabotage was suspected. The Force provides security cover to the critical infrastructure of the country in diverse areas like Atomic Energy, Space, Seaports, Airport, Units in the Power, Steel, Coal, Oil Sectors, Historical monuments and Central Government Buildings in Delhi. CISF is also providing security to the private sector units that are of critical importance to the economy of the country.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)
ITBP is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India, raised on 24 th October, 1962, under the CRPF Act, in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962. Duties of ITBP are as follows: 1.
Vigilance on the northern borders, detection and prevention of border violations and promotion of the sense of security among the local populace.

2.
Check illegal immigration and trans-border smuggling.

3.
Provide security to sensitive installations and threatened VIPs.

4.
Restore and preserve order in any area in the event of disturbance.

State police
Police force mainly looks after the protection of life and property of civilians through the enforcement of laws and ordinances. Work normally consists of checking of parking meters for violations, routine patrol, preliminary investigation and traffic regulation, and investigation duties in a designated area on an assigned shift. In addition, employees of the class may be required to assist other personnel of the police department in conducting interrogations, searches, and related duties as assigned, involving female prisoners or suspects, as well as in escorting females and juveniles to and from designated points. Assignments and general and special instructions are received from a superior officer who reviews work methods and results through reports, personal inspection, and discussion.
So, considering the crucial nature of work of paramilitary and state police personnel, several researches have been conducted with a focus to explore the various mental health issues faced by people working in these services. At the Central level, the problems of mental health are manifested in various instances of fratricide or homicide and suicides. It has been observed that the personnel of Central Armed Police Forces stay away from their families for a very long duration and are unable to look after their families properly. Therefore, when they go home on leave, they get overwhelmed with the problems at home it has, therefore, been noticed that the Police personnel coming back from leave have many cases resorted to unprovoked and unbridled violence In a research project about stress in Police, Dr.Pragya Mathur (1993) , 1996). There is high prevalence of psychological components in the Police personnel. The study has also recommended various welfare programs for promoting positive mental health. Psychologists, Psychiatrists or counselors, according to the study need to be posted in Police hospitals for identifying mental health problems. The study also emphasized on counseling the personnel about proper coping strategies. Thus the present study focused on comparative study of quality of life and life satisfaction of the CISF, ITBP and State Police personnel.

satisfaction in general (SIG), economic (ECO), interpersonal-relations (IPR), family life (FAM), work related (WR), and socio-spiritual (SS).
Reliability-The area wise split half reliability was calculated and overall for the total sample (N=744). The area wise co efficient values range from 0.35 to 0.49 for different areas, which are highly significant. The split half coefficient for total score is 0.74 which is pretty high and indicates that the two split sets of LSS can also be used as parallel forms. Validity-Concurrent validity-When the concurrent validity of LSS was seen through its correlation with Cummins QOL A-5, standardized tool of quality of life (satisfaction) it was found that the values were significant. (r =0.22 p > 0.000) the correlations of sub factors of both the tests were also found significant (r =0.132 to 0.218). Content validity-The content validity of LSS was obtained by inter rater consistency method. The values of inter rater agreement for the areas are 3.5 (five being the maximum) and above, denoting satisfactory validity for the test.

Data collection and management
For central/state police personnel, the tools were administered after taking permissions from the concerned authorities and by organizing specific sessions for a group of 55-60 persons (single or sometimes in parallel sessions) comprising of respondents from different ranks and states across India. Strict adherence to the testing norms was maintained maximally.
Responses on each test were entered in a program made in excel. The responses were rechecked to avoid in mistakes in entering the data. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 17. The following statistical analyses were performed on the data.   On the basis of analysis of responses, following inferences can be drawn.

. Comparison across three groups on QOL-Cummins
Firstly, in the overall factual quality or Life (QOL), Health (H) appears to be highest, for all followed by Productivity, Safety, Intimacy and Emotional Well Being, Material Well Being and Place in Community.
Thus, Material Well Being (MWB) and Place in Community (PC) are the factually lowest areas, which need attention. This is true for all the three organizations in general.
As far as Material Well Being (MWB) is concerned, it may not be possible to immediately introduce decisive changes to enhance the same.
However, from the organization's administrative perspective, the Place in Community is a matter of grave concern in all the three organizations and steps to improve the actual/growth level status in the same need to be introduced, in routine administrative as well as through welfare schemes.
Thus various measures recognizing their individuality, craving for creative role, specially identifiable leaders role need to be undertaken. Considering the size of the forces, this may not be immediately and easily possible but keeping section as a unit some measures -can definitely be initiated. In general, the occasions for meaningful interactions beyond their immediate work situation and family situation need to be conceived of and institutionalized.
Secondly, for individual organizations also, the hierarchical pattern of 'Health -Productivity -Safety -Intimacy -Emotional Well Being -Material Well Being -Place in Community' seems to be the same.
Thirdly, in almost all these areas ITBP scores highest followed by CISF and then State Police. Thus factual quality of Life score for ITBP is better than CISF and Police in all the spheres under consideration.
However, particularly in productivity, State Police stands above ITBP followed by CISF.
The reason for this can be understood on the basis of nature of work of State Police which obviously ensures a certain important place in community. Similarly ever demanding and dynamic work situations with reference to prevention and detection of crime, law and order management, VIP security, Counter Terrorist Operations etc., ensures proper scope for leadership role as compared to ITBP and CISF.
Similarly, in Factual Safety, Police ranks lowest, indicating that occasions on which they feel anxious, restless, short of proper sleep are more often in State Police.
In Intimacy also, Police rank lowest indicating that the number of leisure occasions with family or a feeling that someone cares for them while in distress or someone is there to help them when required are the areas in which specific attention and steps are desirable.
Fourthly, it is pertinent to note that in spite of hard and extra hard areas of postings of ITBP personnel, they score high on all points of QOL Factual Status. This means that either because of some conscious efforts or because of the very nature of duty and deployment the administrative and operational practices in ITBP are much more conducive to higher factual status in all spheres of QOL. Some of these may be inclusion of physical activity in daily routine, scope for pursuing some leisure pastime, scope to have leisure time with peer group etc. Special emphasis given on good quality of ration and food, a lot of family functions/gettogethers and related activities and a general proximity with nature. But this aspect needs further research exploration. So that these practices could be replicated for other similar organizations.
At the level of officers the practice of 'social call on' is almost not observed in CISF, making family interactions and a general appreciation of each other's problems almost a rarity. Whereas in ITBP, may be because of the campus and regimental type arrangements of formations, there is inbuilt intimate interaction in the functioning and in through welfare schemes in general. In a nutshell, it may be said that practices which seem to be instrumental in higher scores in ITBP for all the indications needs to be further studied for replication. Fifthly, it also needs to be seen the job practices and when they encourage positive QOL concept or otherwise.  Table 1.2 shows the mean level satisfaction in these QOL areas for all three groups. These actual satisfaction scores are drawn on the basis of responses to questions probing how satisfied one feels about a particular given aspect of the aspects.
It may be seen on the basis the ANOVA test that -Firstly, overall, HL -INT -MWB -PR -PC -SAF -EWB seems to be general trend for all groups on perceived satisfaction QOL Cummins.
Secondly, MWB i.e. Material Well Being is factually at the lowest for all three groups, but it is not so at satisfaction level. This means that the personnel have generally reconciled with the factual status of MWB and feel relatively satisfied with what they have. This process again underlines the importance of mental orientation and deliberate efforts for proper perspective such as group sessions, group exercises, counseling exercises which help in such reconciliation.
Thirdly, though safety is at a relatively better position at factual level in all the three organizations, it is relatively very low for satisfaction level, especially in CISF and State Police. This means that the extent of restlessness or anxiety or continuous botheration is more in these organizations than their (personnel's) own account of description. Therefore from policy perspective, an attempt to improve positive thinking becomes important. It may also be seen that the order of priority or scores on factual and satisfaction scales is as follows:   Here it is seen that ITBP is score wise at the higher pedestal in all the aspects. Secondly, in case of Emotional Well Being (EWB), the satisfaction is at a lower level than the factual status in all the three organizations under consideration, which means that there is a need to devise ways and programs to help the personnel to feel that they are able to do what they really want to and have a scope to realize their dreams within the organization.
Thirdly, in State Police, factual Productivity score is higher but satisfaction regarding the same is low, what they actually do in job does not correspond to what they wish to do.
Fourthly, the process of reconciliation with reality is evident in aspect of Place in Community (PC). It is seen that factual scores (PC) are low but satisfaction levels are relatively higher in CISF. This means that whatever social relevance or importance they have in their community; they have learnt to derive satisfaction out of it. This approach needs to be cultivated for other aspects as well. Various exercises -individual or group level can be introduced for this purpose. For ITBP and State Police however the PC satisfaction is lower than factual, which needs to be attended. On the whole, Emotional Well Being (EWB), Productivity (PR) and Place in Community (PC) are the areas requiring interventions at policy level. ITBP is the highest with 171.25 score on total or composite satisfaction, followed by CISF and then State Police. This is consistent with the QOL scores in earlier tables and confirms that ITBP has a lot more to offer in terms of organizational practices be studied upon and replicated in other organizations.
Surprisingly even in Family Relations, ITBP is higher, even though the 'between group differences' are not significant. This is surprising because out of the three organizations under consideration its only in ITBP that generally the family is away from the place of actual deployment e.g. in a Battalion, there might be some family accommodation available and occupied, but even those personnel (majority) are actually deployed on the border or field locations. The question therefore is how is that despite being generally away from the families the LSS with Family Relations aspect in ITBP is higher than CISF and Police where comparatively significantly higher number of personnel stay with their families.
Research indicates that SWB and Family Relations are closely associated. However the quality of such interaction is important apart from frequency. When a member of CAPF is in every day contact with his family i.e. if his family is staying with him, it might act as a big positive factor as far as SWB is concerned, provided he gets sufficient quality time to spend with family. In the absence of such scope for quality time the same factor can act for his anxiety, restlessness etc. Since he would be actually doing nothing to address the family problems. Being physically with family would bring him face to face with family every day. In such situation emotionally loaded interactions may become inevitable causing further distress.
ITBP is also on higher side as far as areas like economy, family relations, inter-personal relations and socio spiritual areas.
As mentioned above, in spite of being away from families, ITBP might be scoring high on that aspect because of the reasons mentioned. Secondly their overall positive frame of mind may also have an impact on this satisfaction level as well.
Off course, this does not mean that people should be posted away from families. It only underlines the need for a more qualitative understanding of this phenomenon and how it can be replicated for other groups as well.
Therefore measures to ensure working hours which can allow the personnel to have more quality time with family members and to encourage more channels of family interaction. It may be noted here that in ITBP, whatever is the number of family accommodations available, there are still a lot of programs where even though the members of the Force may be on border duty, there are a lot of structurally woven programs of family interaction such as cultural programs, career counseling, tuition arrangements, and children's competition. They are also carried out in CISF, but need to be given more attention for enrichment.
Also, the units need to arrange, counselors for family counseling locally so that the members open up, if at all there are some intra family issues. This also can be ensured by observing the buddy system in spirit and system of writing down comments/impressions by the buddies for each other and their Coy Commander also making entries about his observations. The overall observations indicate the need to discuss the following points. Scores of CISF and Police are lower than ITBP in all the areas of life satisfaction (LSS) and quality of life -satisfaction (QOL-S). Satisfaction of CISF in Family related matters is not consistent with this fact that a sizeable percentage of CISF personnel get an opportunity to stay with the families.
Resistance towards transfers to difficult postings might be leading to stress as they find difficulty in getting admission for their kids in school, settling at a new place again etc. They might be more concerned about their children's future as transfer lead to new challenges in a new place. They may find it difficult to maintain work-life balance because of two demanding roles-one at home and the other at work. So, there is a possibility of work spillover on the family front and vice versa which in turn might be leading to role-conflict.
Another observation indicates that ITBP is highest on total or composite satisfaction followed by CISF and then State Police and its family satisfaction also highest though they stay away from family.
As part of their initial training, ITBP personnel are prepared mentally for transfers and difficult postings. This grooming might help them to accept transfers as a part of their duties. This acceptance might be a contributing factor in determining their overall satisfaction level. ITBP personnel spend a lot of time away from families. But whenever they interact with family members personally or on phone, the focus is on having emotionally satisfying communication and making most of the available time which might lead to higher satisfaction in family relations.
Due to the overall nature of their job, they are not bothered by family members regarding the day-to-day hassles of family life. Also, QOL-Factual level of Productivity in the Police seems to be inconsistent with the perceived satisfaction. Similar observation with police has been seen for Health.
The job of police is extremely stressful. The nature of day to day work is often inconclusive and involves a lot of administrative work. In carrying out their duties, there is also a pressure from agencies other than the police which leads to additional stress. The nature of this job is hectic involving working even on holidays. Due to this police personnel seem to find it difficult to spend time with families/ fulfill the demands of families. So the tug of war between their personal and professional life might be leading to role conflict. This role conflict at work and home can be a reason for the fact that many police personnel are severely burnt out.
Police job is emotionally exhaustive as the entire day they come across negative emotions and negative thing at their work place As a professional need, police spend most of their time witnessing and getting involved in pain, distress and suffering. This experience of high levels of distress is bound to affect one's own emotional state. Additionally their leaves are most of the times not sanctioned appropriately when needed.
Civil protection demands them to be on constant higher vigilance-The responsibility of protecting the lives of citizens keeps them always alert and ready to enter dangerous situation at any moment on short notice. The switch on and switch off of role from office work to fast paced crime work keeps their mind at stake reducing their perceived satisfaction levels in spite of high productivity.
The important observation that all three groups are relatively low on place in community as compared to other areas of QOL needs explanation.
Due to the nature of their work, they get very little time to engage in various social and community related activities. This might lead to feelings of detachment from one's social group.
Surprisingly, though factual level of Material Well Being is considerably low for all the three groups, their corresponding perceived satisfaction is much higher. This can be explained as the concept of satisfaction is always understood from the context in which the person is staying. So in case of these three groups, it might be said that as compared to the social context in which they stay, they look at themselves as satisfied. Also in collectivist cultures like that of India, people give more importance to satisfaction in other areas of quality of life than being concerned only about the financial area. So, in this group, it might be possible that higher satisfaction in other areas has compensated for low satisfaction on Material wellbeing.

IMPLICATIONS AND FURTHER SUGGESTIONS
This study indicates various needs for all the three groups. CISF and Police needs attention to increase their quality of life while ITBP need to work on maintaining quality of life.
Counselling and Guidance cell within Organization-which can be useful for the officers as well as their family.
• Working hours which allow the personnel to have more quality time for them and their family can be ensured. • Channels for healthy family communication can be encouraged. • 'Buddy system' can be incorporated-where buddies share their thoughts and feelings about colleagues and seniors through writing. • Opportunities for children's overall growth (e.g.-exposure to extra-curricular activities, guidance regarding studies etc.) in form of family back for education can be done. • For certain personality traits and high psychological stress, we can suggest personality assessment that can be made as a part of recruitment. • The issues related to Police Productivity like burnout, lack of satisfaction need to be addressed, support system should be created. • Training for Police for stress management is needed to be focused down the line.
Orientation can be given at the time of training