Only 45 of the 38 000 police in Mumbai applied to earn an extra 250 rupees ($5,50) a month for losing weight, a report said on Wednesday.
Indian authorities offered the cash, starting in November, to police officers who kept their weight under 70kg.
Ahead of the end of the offer this month less than 0,01% of the force had bothered to apply, the Mumbai Mirror said.
The newspaper said that fitness consultants criticised the idea of applying a flat weight limit and said the plan should have used weight in proportion to height as an indicator of fitness.
“What does 250 rupees a month buy you these days?” a constable told the newspaper. “It won’t even buy you a month’s membership at a neighbourhood gym.”
Police in India work in poorly-equipped offices for low pay, which many civic groups say prompts them to take bribes and keeps morale down.
But Mumbai deputy commissioner of police Ashutosh Dumbare told the newspaper that his idea for the fitness bonus was just the beginning.
He also has plans to build gyms at the city’s 83 police stations and set aside time for officers to exercise. — AFP