Andhra Pradesh - Nalgonda   

Home guards suffer in silence

- PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

In Distress: Geddam Swarupa, a former naxal turns to the State Human Rights Commission in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

NALGONDA: “For the donkey work I do for a minimum of 10 hours in a day, I get only Rs.100. I don’t have weekly-off or a provision to take leave. Most of the officers ill-treat me during the duty. As I don’t find a better job, I have been in this job for the last ten years,” Bhiksham rues.

“This job is a must for me to take care of my family. Taking advantage of my vulnerable condition, my superior always tries to sexually exploit me. If I make a fuss, I’ll lose my job,” Bharatamma laments.

Bhiksham and Bharatamma (names changed) are among the 1,068 home guards working in six sub-divisions in the district. Even as the Government celebrates “Home Guards’ Raising Day” every year amid mega pomp, the problems of the home guards remain unsolved.

Irregular payment of salaries, lack of weekly-off and leave facility, absence of other allowances and ill-treatment by the superiors are the problems being faced by home guards.

“During the visit of the Chief Ministers, our bosses would drop us at culverts and other isolated places a day before the programme.

They would supply a meal on the day of the VVIPs’ visit. We have to meet our expenses from our pocket,” another home guard, who put in six years of experience, told The Hindu. As the ‘job insecurity’ looms large over them, most of them suffer the humiliations in silence or take political shelter to protect their skin.

Thanks to the initiative of the Superintendent of Police Vijay Kumar and the Reserve Inspector S. V. D. Prasad, for the first time a sports meet was held for the home guards to mark the Raising Day.

He informed that a group insurance for the home guards’ families was being implemented in the district.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Three ryots killed
Women destroy jaggery wash, arrack
Home guards suffer in silence

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu