Security Guards: The invisible men donning uniform

Sexual assault of a minor girl in Ayanavaram by 17 men which included security guards; murder of a guard by an overworked colleague in Nandanam; and the city police’s insistence that banks should deploy younger, fitter men on duty – private security guards and the agencies that provide the service have been in the spotlight in the recent past. 

At the heart of all this is a sector that employs thousands of personnel, but beyond the uniform, there is little in terms of regulation to govern these men, often elderly, as professionals.

“We have to clock exactly 12 hours at work, but it will take another hour to hand over the responsibility to the next person and leave the workplace,” said M Dhandapani, a guard posted at a private engineering college near Kundrathur. The shift would have to be extended once or twice a month, he said, adding how he and his colleagues do not take leave as much as possible so that another person is not made to work double shifts.

“The problem I face is availing of leave. There are no weekly offs and I literally have to beg the security agency to avail leave,” he said. However, Dandapani, like many others, continues to stick to the job as it pays on time – even if lesser compared to many other professions.

The job description of a security guard leaves nothing to ambiguity. However, in reality, said a guard at one of the apartments in Vepery on condition of anonymity, it is not limited to only guarding the gate. “Because it is a community space, we have the other responsibilities such as switching on the water pumps and operating lifts. The agencies that employ us ask us to cooperate with the residents and not to make a fuss about the odd jobs,” he said.

Conversations with guards and agencies reveal that one of the important reasons for poor organisation of the sector is cost-cutting efforts from all ranging from banks to resident welfare association. While young guards are picked up by IT companies and industries, senior citizens end up in residential complexes which look for a cheaper option. As a result, the latter is left to deal with personnel who are not trained or equipped enough to handle the job – worthy of what they are willing to pay.

“We have sent out so many guards in the last 10 years after finding them drunk at work place. I think security agencies struggle to get the right kind of manpower and recruit whoever comes to them because of the manpower shortage. But our welfare association also had to compromise on certain measures as per the maintenance budget,” said Ganga Sridhar, president of a residents’ welfare association in Mylapore.

Cost-cutting is also the reason why one finds senior citizens employed at ATM kiosks, who are many a time found sleeping inside the relative comfort of the air-conditioned cubicle. They are not to be blamed, as banks, who have insured the money in the machine, want a cheap labour only for the sake of marking human presence, alleged an official from a private security agency firm in the city.

“As banks need to pay upto Rs 60,000 a month for round-the-clock-security with three young men in three shifts, they want one of them to be a senior citizen who will be paid only one-third of thesalary,” he added.

A Sundaram (52), who has been working as a guard for 16 years, is now posted at a private bank in Periamet. “Initially, it was three shifts a day with eight hours of work. But it did not work for many agencies, many of whom had changed it to two 12-hour shifts. The bank I work said they did not need a security guard for night duty.So I’m alone managing the operations during the day.” 

Security agencies admit that they face a perennial struggle of manpower shortage, now being bailed out by men from other States like Odisha and Assam. “Even the advertisements in the media don’t attract enough candidates. Though many clients prefer local men as guards, the latter don’t prefer to work in the security services. We have a housekeeping agency where there are a lot of applications from youngsters, but they don’t find job of guards attractive,” said Ramachandran, deputy general manager of Bharatheeyam Security Services.

The agencies are able to meet the requirements with the help of migrant workers, as IT firms look for Hindi-speaking guards to attend to the employees of multi-cultural environment, he added.

Such stress at work has led to a situation where there is no long-standing employee-employer relationship, resulting in high attrition rate, most of them quitting abruptly. This is a lose-lose situation for all, including the personnel, who are constantly on the lookout for job and their sudden resignations burden existing employees with shifts without any break.

Raja, owner of Pappammal Security Services, said the firmswere under constant pressure from clients, employees as well as the government. “As local men are not to willing join, we recruit north Indians or even Nepal nationals through agencies. Problem with them is, if they don’t like something, they will stage a mass exodus, leaving us with a big vacuum. Also, not all the clients pay on time, sometimes it gets delayed for months. In such times, we end up paying salary from our pocket,” he said.

From being in big demand, so much so that retired hands were brought in from northern states, banks have stopped employing ex-servicemen with gun licence citing cost cutting measures. “Now, only major government entities employ ex-servicemen,” said Sultan (55) of Kovalam, who took up job as security guard after retiring as havilderfrom the Indian Army.

Tamil Nadu Ex-Servicemen’s Corporation Limited (Texco) is one of the authorised organisations which provides ex-servicemen for guard posts.However, due to restrictions on maximum age and distance, many retired personnel opt for private security agencies, said Sultan, rueing how these private firms fail to treat the former army staff with respect.

“If banks bring back the system of guards with guns and if Texco relaxes the age factor, it will be of much help to ex-servicemen,” he added. This is important for a large number of persons who retire from the army. While those in Subedarand NaibSubedarranks retire at theage of 44 to 48 years, those in havildar rank retire at the age of 40 to 44 years. After this, they have to look for a new livelihood. “As they are not trained in any other life skills, security guards are the only option for many of us,” Sultan said.

Amount charged by security agencies per month: