The recent incident at True Friends Apartments in Sector 6, Dwarka, has brought focus back on underpaid and untrained guards. City Spidey speaks to RWAs across the sub-city to know their thoughts.
The recent incident at True Friends Apartments in Sector 6 has brought focus back on underpaid and untrained guards.
The guards at True Friends Apartments were not trained to handle armed intruders and they didn’t have any insurance coverage. The story is same for guards across societies in Dwarka.
President of Ganpati Apartments, Sector 9, and president of FORWAS (Federation of RWAs of Sector 9), Advocate KS Bhati, said, "The guards that societies and DDA pockets hire for security are less paid and untrained. The agencies keep their margin and pay less; the society RWAs or management depend upon the maintenance charges they receive from residents. So guards are there to just maintain the entry-exit register! It’s unfortunate because these guards are even not insured. But the administration does not seem to be serious about these things.”
There are no fixed hours for the guards — they do shifts of 12 hours or 8 hours. And sometimes, they do double shifts.
A social activist and a resident of Sector 16B, Ramesh Mumukshu, opined, “You can see guards in their seventies! There’s no age limit — no health check-ups. They continue in this career because they have to survive. But what about security? These are questions that need to be answered.”
The salary of guards is slightly better in the CGHS societies compared to the DDA pockets. Though that does not impact the quality of service, say RWA members of DDA pockets.
President of Radhika Apartments, a DDA pocket at Sector 14, SS Chowhan, said, "We take only Rs 100, and we have three guards and one caretaker. In CGHS societies, the maintenance charge is over Rs 1,000. But the quality of service is almost the same.”
He further added, "The police and administration, too, have a part to play. Earlier, beat constables would do more frequent rounds of the societies. But things have gone down in the last two-three years. I can show the register to back my claim. The police should look into it — it should also take some initiative in training the guards.
"Secretary of Federation of CGHS, Selva Rajan, said, “The recent incident raises questions about the preparedness of security guards in societies. Most societies depend on security agencies to engage guards at meagre pays. They are neither properly trained nor armed to meet a crisis like the one that happened recently. In fact, they are just gate keepers! We can’t blame them either. It's pertinent that they receive some security training. We wish to organise such workshops jointly with Delhi police.”
