Home Guards the Unsung Warriors in Corona War

Home Guards the Unsung Warriors in Corona War    

Syed Ali Mujtaba

Chennai April 15, 2020: On March 22, at 5 PM when the nation clapped and beat the vessels to cheer up those fighting the Corona war did anyone thought about Home Guards?  Even though they are on the forefront of the battle line they remain unsung heroes in the on going Corona war.     

Talking about Home Guards activities in Chennai, Mr. Manjit Singh Nayyar, Assistant Commandant General for the Home Guards, listed out the impeccable work that this auxiliary force is doing to ameliorate the city woes and keep the people stay at home and remain healthy. 

"There are 15,622 Home Guards in Tamil Nadu and among them 2,805 are women. In Chennai, there are 3,190 Home Guard, of whom 2,805 are men and 385 are women" he said.

“Chennai Home Guards are doing wonderful service and on an average 1600 to 1700 are reporting to duty every day,” Mr Nayyar said, adding they are helping police in managing ration shops in the city, managing the Koyambedu wholesale vegetable market, and many other such duties since the lock down had come into force on March 25.”

“The Home Guards have so far procured over 40,000 masks and handed it over to the Chennai police for making use of them patrolling on the city roads.”

“Some 50 Home Guard volunteers are managing the Koyambedu vegetable market, the hub of vegetables and fruits for Chennai, daily since from 4 am.”

“The Home Guard is helping in the systematic distribution of groceries at the ration shops, managing crowd and social distancing across Chennai.”   

“The Home Guards are also distributing Kabasura Kudineer, the herbal drink useful to improve immune system to 500 people daily in the city. The energy drink is procured from the Indian Medical Practitioners Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores (IMPCOPS).”

“They are distributing 200 food packets prepared by various societies among the city’s Kannagi Nagar slum clearance board families and also providing the same to 150 to 200 poor people who visits there.”

“On a daily basis, the Home Guards are also distributing water, sanitizer and masks to the Municipal corporation workers at different places in the city.”    

Mr Nayyar, who is also the General Secretary and Correspondent of Guru Nanak Educational Society that run Guru Nanak College, where a shelter camp is set up for 377 migrant workers, said, “there are 50 Home Guards assisting the College in running the relief camp.”

“They are taking care of the distribution of food to the inmates, maintaining social distancing, ensuring no unauthorized person enters the campus, picking up raw material for the open kitchen (langer) from different locations of the city and also distributing food packets to 75 migrant workers residing close to college.”

 In these efforts, College estate manager Navjit Singh, Gyani Satpal Singh and his son deserves special praise for their tireless efforts to smoothly run the relief camp.  

Mr Nayyar said, he will be failing in his duty if he does not mention the names like Mr Sugumar, Home Guard Area Commander South, Mr. Sanjay Bhansali, Area Commander North, Mr. Umapathy Chandrasekar, Area Commander West, who all have been tirelessly working with the Home Guards in the ongoing war against Covid-19. 

Home Guards have always been a pillar of support for the police and the fire service in the city. Be it the tsunami of 2004 or the Mugalivakkam building collapse on June 28 2014, when an eleven-story under-construction building fell down in Chennai suburb due to lighting strike, killing 61 people, or the tragic Chennai floods of 2015, Home Guard’s record of service is impeachable.   

Home Guards comprise a voluntary group of civilians, assisting police personnel with tasks like crowd control, traffic management, VIP ‘bandobast’ and disaster relief etc. 

The Home Guard was formed in 1963, following the Sino-Indian War. It falls under the Directorate of Civil Defence of the Tamil Nadu Police. When called on duty, a Home Guard has the same powers, privileges and protection as an officer of the police appointed under the Madras City Police Act, 1888.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com

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