CHENNAI: They spend at least between 12 to 14 hours on duty. And on most days they have to keep standing for hours together. Most of them stay in Chennai’s outskirts where they can get houses on cheap rent. Duty hours and the travelling time leave them hardly five to six hours to sleep a day. Besides, at times they face the risk of getting killed for doing their job.
Yet, when it comes to pay, the security guards are the ones who get the lowest among any organised industry. The average pay for a security guard in Tamil Nadu is between `4,000 to `5,000 (It is comparatively higher in cities like Chennai where the pay is around `8,000 to `10,000, depending on the age, the employer and the client).
“I guess this is almost what a beggar in Chennai would manage in a month,” says S Ranganathan, a fragile 60-year-old who guards an ATM on Vepery High Road. The sarcasm in his tone is evident. A diabetic, he says he will continue the job so that he can stand on his own feet and not be dependent on his son’s income.
Those like Ranganathan are at the bottom rung of this industry, which is otherwise burgeoning with a huge demand from sectors ranging from software industries, malls, banking and residential apartments. The industry is estimated to be worth around `32,000 crore in India, and is growing by around 20-25 per cent annually.
But the most common problem is the injustice meted out to people like Ranganthan because of their meagre pay. Industry leaders say customers in Tamil Nadu are the worst among the states. “The average pay is much better in many other states. For example it is `9,000 in Himachal Pradesh. Even in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, it is `7,000. But in Tamil Nadu it is just `5,000,” rues Capt. Shibu Issac, chairman of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry chapter of Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI).
The unwillingness of clients to give a decent pay is the main reason why private security agencies recruit elderly people. It is not just the apartment residents who baulk at the idea of giving a decent salary, even corporates with deep pockets think likewise, claim insiders.
Frustrated by the especially low wages given by banks to private security guards, CAPSI is planning to write to RBI asking it to regulate the wage structure. “Banks definitely have the wherewithal to give a decent salary. We are going to ask the RBI to instruct banks to employ only younger men in ATMs and other places as security guards. Only with a decent pay we will be able attract quality, which will in turn result in enhanced service of the customer,” says Kunwar Vikram Singh, chairman, CAPSI.
While the wage and age issues are not new, the spate of attacks and even murders of guards at ATMs has lent a new sense of urgency to address them.
The most recent incident in Chennai was at East Coast Road when robbers murdered N Murugan, a security guard of a lonely ATM kiosk.
“The problem lies in the Private Security Agencies Regulation Act. It allows employment of people up to the age of 60 years,” points out Shibu Issac, adding that the law must be amended setting a lower age limit. “The fact is that private security guards are many times more in number than police personnel. There is big potential to use this human resource to greatly enhance the internal security of the country. Our men can provide an abundance of intelligence inputs to the police,” says Kunwar Vikram Singh, pointing that the peanuts they get as pay is the biggest stumbling block for progress in this direction.
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