‘Cancel hiring, reinstate old criteria’: Delhi’s Home guards protest new recruitment drive

Addressing protesters, Rohit Gautam, a home guard from Jauhripur who heads their union, said, “The Delhi Home Guard is such an entity that gives jobs only to snatch them away later, I appeal to the public to not fill the application form.”

First raised in India in December 1946, the Home Guard is a voluntary force that assists police. Typically, their tenure spans three years, with a yearly extension of up to five years. The last recruitment was in 2019; some home guards were deployed as marshals on city buses then. The drive has since been delayed due to various reasons, including protests, Covid pandemic, and election-related activities.

Anil Sharma, a home guard at the DCP office in Hauz Khas, said, “Most of us are 45 and 50 plus, where will we find new work at this age? We have families to care for, our kids are still in school… with the current unemployment situation in the country, finding a job as a security guard will also be difficult at this age.”

Another home guard, Devender Sharma, expressed frustration over unfulfilled promises of promotion to the commando force, and said, “Today, we are only asking for our right to employment for which we have proved ourselves by giving multiple written and physical exams before every extension.”

They have also written a letter to L-G VK Saxena and the Union Home Minister to amend the Delhi Home Guard Rules to ensure that the service of the 8,624 home guards currently serving continues till the age of 60.

When contacted, Delhi government sources claimed the matter needs to be dealt with by the L-G House. Sources from the L-G house said, “This is not a reserved subject, home guards come under the home department and their recruitment is done by the Delhi government. The proposal was made by them, we have just approved it. Age criteria was reduced from 60 to 45 to ensure home guards are physically fit during their tenure — also a Delhi government proposal.”

To this, government sources said, “Recruitment is with the Delhi government but services are with L-G, so the L-G office should be dealing with the matter.”