Concerned over the increasing instances of security threats to tourists in the country, the Tourism Ministry, in consultation with the ministries of Home and Defence, has issued guidelines to state governments to constitute tourist police. Both foreign and domestic tourists, especially women, have been attacked in recent times. Following the murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling in Goa, a number of countries including the US, the UK and Australia had issued travel advisories asking its citizens, especially women, not to travel alone in India.

“Any adverse perception about safety and security of tourists will have serious implications for tourist arrivals in the country. Taking this into consideration, the ministry has asked the states to form tourism security organisations to ensure the safety of tourists in their respective jurisdictions at the earliest,” Tourism Joint Secretary Leena Nandan told The Indian Express.

As per guidelines, the work profile of the tourist police, apart from ensuring safety of the tourists, is to act as a bridge between tourists and the administration/district police. It will be the duty of the tourist police to provide necessary information to tourists to facilitate their visits and to act appropriately in case of an emergency. They will be deployed at important tourist destinations, railway stations, bus depots and airports.

The guidelines stipulate that the tourist police be constituted from a pool of ex-servicemen maintained by the Director General of Resettlement. It will be a three-tier structure — state level, district level and destination level — which will be supervised by a joint committee comprising the state Home Secretary and the Tourism Secretary.

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