Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new anti-corruption vigilance campaign has made the word “chowkidar” a global Twitter trend. But what does it mean for the real watchmen who help India feel more secure?
On March 16, Modi launched a campaign called #MainBhiChowkidar or “I too am a watchman”, urging all Indians to serve as metaphorical guards against corruption. Soon, the hashtag became the top trend on Twitter and ministers and senior members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party prefixed the word “chowkidar” to their names on Twitter to promote the campaign.
Since the weekend, the campaign has been a source of entertainment on social media and an opportunity for Opposition parties to poke fun at the BJP’s own corruption controversies. But just as Modi’s past references to “chaiwalas” and “pakora-sellers” put the spotlight on tea sellers and hawkers of batter-fried snacks, the prime minister’s “chowkidar” campaign has thrown the spotlight on another invisible blue-collar profession: the ubiquitous security guards who man the gates of establishments across the country for very little pay and often with very little sleep.
Do the actual chowkidars of India find it flattering or offensive that Modi has appropriated their profession for his campaign? Do they believe the #MainBhiChowkidar campaign will have any impact on their lives? What do they make of the past five years of the BJP government at the Centre? Scroll.in posed these questions to security guards around the country and received a range of diverse responses.
‘We are poor, we just go about our work’
Gunasekhar, Bengaluru
Gunasekhar has spent the past 15 years working as a watchman in Bengaluru, the last two years at an apartment building in the Hennur neighbourhood. He had not heard of the #MainBhiChowkidar campaign or that the prime minister had referred to himself as India’s chowkidar till this reporter asked him about it.
“He is the prime minister and can do what he likes,” said Gunasekhar. “We are poor people and just go about our work.”
Gunasekhar, who just turned 60, has been struggling to start getting his pension. Since he works a 12-hour shift every day, he has not had time to get the paperwork done. He is paid Rs 9,000 a month and worries about money because of his health problems. He has had two cataract operations and said he has some trouble with his kidneys.
To people like him, it did not make much of a difference what party comes to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Gunasekhar said. But his main impression of the Modi government is not favourable. “After Modi came, we all had problems with money,” he said, referring to the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November 2016. “What does he know of our troubles? He is somewhere there [in Delhi] and we are here.”
‘I would not want anyone to be a chowkidar’
Sagar Tiwari, Mumbai
“I saw on WhatsApp that Modi wants everyone to be a chowkidar, but I do not want anyone to suffer through this job,” said 25-year-old Sagar Tiwari, who guards the gate of a high-end restaurant in suburban Mumbai. “It is very difficult.”
A Class 9 drop-out, Tiwari left his village in Uttar Pradesh’s Allahabad (now Prayagraj) district at the age of 14 and has been working as a security guard in Mumbai ever since. “When I was young I used to do a single 12-hour shift every day, but after marriage, a man’s responsibilities increase,” said Tiwari, who now has to support his wife, two young children and his parents back in the village.
For the past five years, he has been working two 12-hour shifts every day – one at the restaurant during the day and a night shift at a gated housing society. He earns Rs 7,500 at each job.
“It is not possible for anyone to be awake for 24 hours, and I catch some sleep during my night shift, but people shout when they see you dozing,” said Tiwari. “Still, it is better than being a farmer. My parents make just Rs 20,000 a year in profits through farming. No one can survive on that.”
Despite the difficulties of his job, Tiwari is proud that the prime minister’s #MainBhiChowkidar campaign acknowledges the work of security guards. “Modi has done great work with building toilets in every village and removing black money,” he said.
Since Tiwari does not have an address in Mumbai, his voter identity card is registered in his village. “But I will definitely go home to vote.”
‘Our lives are not going to change’
S Kuppan, Chennai
S Kuppan, 60, a watchman in a residential apartment in Royapettah in Chennai, claims he has only hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Can we even go near him?” he said. “It is funny to hear him call himself a watchman.”
A Dalit, Kuppan moved to Chennai in the late 1960s to escape poverty and untouchability in his village in Thiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu. “We could not even wear our slippers on the village streets back then,” he said. In Chennai, he pulled hand-rickshaws till they became an outdated mode of transport.
For the past 15 years, he has been working as a security guard – first with an agency and later on his own. “The agencies would pay us after taking away a portion of our earning,” he said. “I used to earn only Rs 5,000 per month and the working hours would stretch more than 12 hours. They were exploiting us so I started to look for a job on my own.”
In November 2016, demonetisation turned his life upside down. Just before the prime minister withdrew old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes from the economy, Kuppan had received Rs 1 lakh in cash from a chit fund scheme operated in his locality. “It was one year of my savings,” he said. “It took me one month to get the notes converted into new notes.”
In that time, he lost a comfortable job that paid him Rs 8,500 a month. Though he found a new job as a watchman, he now earns only Rs 6,500 a month for a 12-hour daily shift.
He lives with his wife, who works as a house maid, in a rented house. “We have to spend Rs 10,000 a month on rent and power bill,” he said. “Our lives are not going to change whoever comes to power. We have to work to earn our livelihood.”
‘Might help bridge classist differences’
Akhilesh Singh, Lucknow
Akhilesh Singh, a 50-year-old security guard at a school in Lucknow, is of the view that the #MainBhiChowkidar campaign is meant to “guide the nation”. According to Singh, classist differences have been a part of Indian society for ages and he is hopeful that this campaign might actually help, however little, in bridging those differences.
Singh works eight-hour shifts and takes care of his four children. The youngest is in Class 12. He owns a piece of land in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti district, which his brother looks after. “When I was younger, I used to work till 2 am,” he said. “I’d like to have more money but since I cannot work as much as I used to, we try and adjust our needs to whatever resources we have.”
Singh finds it hard to recollect how long he has been working as a security guard. “Seems like it has been forever,” he said. He was earlier employed as a private security guard with the same school, but when the system changed to favour security service agencies, he had no choice but to register himself with one.
“I am glad that the prime minister called himself a chowkidar,” he said. “I belong to the general category so I did not expect social benefits to percolate to me in just five years, but I’m hopeful that things will get better if Modiji returns.”