Pune’s 1st women municipal guards unhappy

The three women are uncomfortable with their designations

PUNE: Conquering male bastions usually brings a sense of achievement to women. But three women who were appointed as security guards at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are finding it tough to take pride in their feat.  The three are just happy they have landed a job. This is the first time the civic body will have women providing security.

Anita Raut, Rekha Jagtap and Dhanashree Landge were given the job of security guards at the PMC after their close relatives died while serving the civic body.

Though the women are glad the jobs have provided them with a means of livelihood, they are uncomfortable mentioning their job titles to friends and relatives. In fact they did not even want to be photographed.

Twenty-year-old Dhanashree feels it will spoil her marriage prospects. “My mother finds it extremely embarrassing to tell people I’m employed as a security guard,” she said.

Anita, 40, who has two daughters and a 11-year-old son to support said, “After my husband’s death, we desperately needed regular income and I thought I would get a posting as a Class IV employee at the PMC. I never dreamt I would be appointed as a security guard.”

Rekha, however, looks at her new role positively and wants proper training to be provided. “That would make us more comfortable,” said Rekha who lost her husband in an accident seven years ago.

PMC’s chief security officer, L M Kondhare, told DNA he was aware of the disgruntlement. “Before we form any training module specially designed for the women security guards, we have included them in the general training programme,” he said.  

To begin with, the PMC has introduced daily fitness drills for the women and some other informative sessions such as combating skills and getting to know the PMC premises well.

 “We needed them for PMC hospitals, gardens and the headquarter premises. It was a long-pending demand of the PMC women’s committee to have women security guards,” municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said.

He said the PMC would need more women guards in future and before further appointments are made a proper training programme will be put in place, Pardeshi added.

“Maybe it is all in our mind. But it will also take time to convince our relatives that we have a respectable position at our workplace,” Anita said, summing up perhaps what they all were going through right now.