RECOGNITION OF  SECURITY PROFESSION AT PAR WITH OTHERS
By Mr. B.G. Deopujari, CMD,

Ex-Servicemen’s Multipurpose Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., Nagpur.

PREAMBLE 

When others sleep peacefully, they remain awake and alert,

When others work under the shed, they operate under the harsh sun,

Showing total disregard to their personal safety, they face the mob,

Chase the thieves, stop pilferage, check malpractices,

Make meticulous data entries and handle high-tech instruments. 

Then, why should they be treated as unskilled Labour ?

 In the last decade, the demand for trained security personnel for Industries whether small or large, Government Departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other Corporate Establishments has increased multifold. To meet this growing demand, security agencies have mushroomed in the country in thousands, which are being run, not necessarily by professionals, but in large number of cases by individuals desirous of making a quick buck by adopting unlawful practices.  The miseries of these Security Guards have increased further because of non-availability of employment avenues, which compels them to work with any Security Agency.  In this context, the statement made by Hon`ble Shri Satish Chaturvedi, Minister for Labour, Govt. of Maharashtra, which appeared in most of the leading dailies last year is very much relevant. It is time, the society and the State takes a relook on the status of this faceless person called security guard.

SECURITY AGENCIES

It is a known fact that security agencies have come into the field in a big way because of the necessity, which has been generated due to increase in crime rate, theft and pilferages everywhere and almost in every field.  Mostly, these security agencies neither have an infrastructure nor the professional background to handle the security of multifarious types.  A bill was introduced in Parliament to regularize the security agencies but as on date it is pending in Parliament.  Everybody knows, this sector is neither organized nor recognised.  Security profession as such is not recognized in India so far like other professions e.g. Engineering, Medicine, Architecture, C.A., Marketing, IT etc.  This is in contrast with the prevailing practice in most of the developed countries where the facilities for training of security personnel are available up to postgraduate/PhD level in their schools and universities. The scenario prevailing in Indian this subject is far from satisfactory.  On the other hand, there is an urgent need to regulate the security agencies, based on their performance and capabilities to switch over to high tech security systems.  

Security activities do not relate to merely gate keeping only, but encompass moral responsibility of a security guard to protect the interest of the industry where he is deployed.  It is their primary responsibility to assist the industries to reduce losses and increase the profitability.  Therefore it is necessary, to revisit this service sector on priority so that dedicated and trained personnel are available for duties of security such as VIP/CIP protection, industries, air ports, hospitals, hotels, private estates and so on.

STATUS:

Legally, security guards are still rated as unskilled labour, barring those deployed through Director General of Resettlement and a few others, for the sake of status and as far as wages are concerned, whereas their responsibilities and duties are much higher than skilled labour.  There are unending expectations from the security personnel by the management to handle not only the entire gamut of security of their establishment but to undertake a plethora of additional jobs such as house keeping, transport management, dispatch/receipt of mail, reception etc.   The status of these security personnel (unskilled labour) is also at the lowest ebb because law provides them no protection against the hazards involved in discharge of their responsibilities.  As a matter of routine, security personnel are expected to meet any challenge posed by workmen to disturb industrial peace or by the persons involved in unlawful activities with intent to cause financial loss to the industry or to fight a calamity such as fire accident, blasts, structure collapse, flooding etc. in the industry or at any work place and are supposed to be fully trained to meet such multifunctional requirements.  Therefore, there is an urgent need to take up the issue with the government to recognize this as a profession and incorporate provisions to ensure that security personnel i.e. from Security Guard to Senior Executives handling Security Management, acquire qualifications from recognized Security Training Institutes.  It would be appropriate to mention that such an institute named “Institute of Industrial Security Management & Research”  “(IISM&R)” has recently come up in the five star industrial area of MIDC Butibori, in the outskirts of Nagpur.   It has commenced imparting training to security guards and plans to extend the scope of training to post graduate diploma level in industrial security management.  Training for the guards includes Personality Development, improving physical fitness and bearing, polishing working knowledge of English, Driving, Computer literacy, Martial art, Fire fighting, First aid, Mob control, VIP/CIP protection, Intelligence, Pilferage control, Access control, civil defence etc.  Trained personnel from such Institutes will only be able to meet the challenging security needs of the Industry in modern era of global competition.

Further, in this profession it can be seen in many corporate establishments that once a person joins as guard he remains a guard till his retirement.  There is hardly any incentive or motivation for the security personnel who are expected to be smart, tough, alert and intelligent with loyalty and integrity.  This aspect must not be overlooked by either the Industry or Government.  Therefore authorities must ensure that their take home salary is at par with other persons equipped with similar skills, receive adequate perks commensurate to their status, imbibing a sense of belonging in them.

INDUSTRIAL SECURITY – AN INVISIBLE LINK TO NATIONAL SECURITY:

The Security Professionals with adequate experience in the field of security management have established a link between the security profession with the National Security.  This has been elucidated as follows:

Industrial security is an integral part of the overall National Security Environment.   Generally, National Security is confused with security of border areas only.  However, this is not true.  Security of borders is just one aspect of national security.  Industries require safe and secure environment to progress and develop, so that they can contribute in providing strong economic base which gives sustenance to face internal and external threats to the nation.  It is said in this context that development of a nation is an indicator of its national security.  Thus, there must not be any doubt that industrial security is an integral part of national security scenario.  However there seems to be a general apathy towards recognizing this profession by Government and other institutions, which have not made any attempt, let alone give a thought to exploiting the untapped resource of industrial security guard to play a much larger role by assigning duties, which literally cannot be undertaken by the meagre police force. Industrial security agencies with adequate infrastructure, training facilities and proven track record can be properly catalogued, scrutinized, graded and assigned duties related not only to Industrial Crimes but also those of national importance, such as gathering intelligence related to antisocial elements, terrorists movement, anti national activities, providing security cover to National Airlines, Airport installations and many important PSU`s.

 There is total chaos on the fronts where National Airlines are opting for the service of Home Guards for carrying out ladder point checks on passengers and their hand baggage at different airports.  A ladder point check, which is usually carried out after the security check conducted by police officials, involves screening passengers and their hand baggage near the entrance of the Aircraft.  While the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is training the home guards, at the behest of directives issued by the Center, who seem to be doing a fairly good job, it shows their total ignorance towards the availability of this large resource of professionally trained security personnel which is readily available to undertake such assignments there by relieving the home guards and police personnel to look after more vulnerable issues.

Security agencies with consistent credible performance and having their own authentic infrastructure for imparting training, need to be taken into account by the government and Private Security Guards granted the status of National Security Guard or what ever may be the designated title so as to uplift their image to a respectable position fostering confidence in others towards their absolute reliability.  In fact they should be treated as readily available reinforcement to the existing law enforcing agencies.

SECURITY AGENCIES – A PROBABLE COMPLEMENTARY ARM OF THE STATE POLICE:

With the mushrooming of security agencies there seems to be a boom to the Police Department to avail of full advantage in gathering intelligence from this untapped source in uniform.  There could be an ideal link up between the Police Department and Security Agencies on this front in gathering vital intelligence information on anti social elements, anti national elements and other relevant data that comes very handy to the department from time to time.  This source has not been tapped so far resulting in sheer waste of available avenues that would benefit the Police Department to a great extent in the long run.  Alternately a link up with Police Department will ensure proper recruitment in the security agencies where outlaws and criminals from other states are getting enrolled as security guards to cover up their criminal past.  A proper link up with the Police Department will further increase capabilities of the long arm of the law in dealing with the work related to law and order as well as nipping the criminal activities prior to their sprouting.  Similar arrangements exist in most of the foreign countries

 The Problem and its Ameolioration

There has been a growing feeling amongst many that Security Guards are being unduly exploited.  This may be true in many cases because today many Security Agencies have mushroomed which are operated by persons who aim to make quick money by pocketing substantial amount of guards’ wages because they never intend to comply with the statutory provisions.  The State has promulgated many important Acts to safeguard the interest of workers employed in unorganised sector such as Contract Labour (Regulation and abolition) Act 1917, Employees PF and Miscellaneous Provision Act 1952, Payment of Wages Act 1936, Employees State Insurance Act 1948, Workmen’s Compensation Act 1923 etc.  The Government has also entrusted the task    to check if provisions of these Acts are appropriately implemented, to  authorities, such as, Asst. Labour Commissioner, Labour  Enforcement officer, Regional PF Commissioner, Director ESIC, Shops and Establishment enforcement officers and so on and so forth.  If these departments are discharging their duties then the burning question which arises is, how the private security guards are exploited by certain agencies with vested interest?

Recently the Government of Maharashtra has announced that jurisdiction of Security Guards Board earlier constituted for Brihan Mumbai and Navi Mumbai would now be extended to the areas under the districts of Nagpur and other districts to include Aurangabad, Nasik, Pune etc.  This has given rise to another question that, is the Government constituting another agency to oversee the performance of the department  mentioned above or an independent agency is being constituted to ensure compliance of all statutory provisions and thus providing desired social security to the private security guard?   If it is deemed as another autonomous agency, then another question which arises is, what is the guarantee that this agency will be able to achieve what the other Government Departments  apparently could not do so far?

It is mandatory to provide total social security to the private security guards and it will only be appropriate to ensure that the existing agencies discharge their functions property to achieve this goal, which they are well equipped to do so.  Those security agencies which are found lacking in compliance of the statutory provisions must be banned but those who are adhering to these provisions in totality and can substantiate it with their records and facts must be permitted to carryout their business without imposing  further restrictions on them.

SUBMISSION :

It is need of the day that Security as a business is recognised by the State and the Security professionals are not only treated with dignity but they are included as scheduled employees as in the case of other skilled and highly skilled workmen.  Concurrently those agencies which have their own training institutions to impart quality training to private security guards and are adhering to all statutory provisions should be permitted to function without further restriction as per the existing provisions under Maharashtra Private Security Guard (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act 1981.

We are sanguine; this brief will draw attention of the authorities concerned and receive positive response towards creating law-abiding environs, taking a joint leap forward, towards creating a safer world order.