Indian women turn Charlie's Angels
New Delhi: Hit 70s television show Charlie's Angels is becoming something of a reality in India. Well-to-do women such as entrepeneurs and film stars can now hire combat-savvy female bodyguards to better protect their interests. While the booming private security sector has been a cast-iron male bastion, the new breed of fighting females can offer skills that outstrip many of their male counterparts. For not only have the women received training in martial arts and weaponry, but etiquette as well, offering a new dimension to that of the traditionally boorish Personal Security Officer (PSO). "We are changing the rules of the game," said Rajiv Gupta, general manager of Client Services, which is trawling for well-heeled customers for a security provider that for the first time in India is offering female PSOs. The domestic security sector soared after India in 1994 enacted the Private Security Guards and Agencies Bill to end the state monopoly on protection services. The federal Central Industrial Security Force estimates that the corporate security market is currently worth Rs 10 billion and is growing annually by 17 percent. "There is a huge demand for executive protection and so we are adding the category of female PSOs as a premium segment to guard chief executive officers," said Gupta, of the Vision Security Group. Group managing director Sunil Duggal said his agency planned to carve a space in the security industry by targeting high-flying women in the corporate world. "This group will exclusively cater to the security needs of women entrepreneurs, industrialists and film stars who feel uncomfortable with male guards around them." "These girls are as good as men and have undergone the same rigorous training procedure," Duggal told reporters of his band of female warriors. Delhi alone has more than 300 security services which mostly use semi-literate former soldiers and policemen. "What we are offering are educated women who also carry a punch," added Gupta. Some in the security industry, however, appeared unsure. "I have been in this sector for 25 years and so far I have not received a single request for women guards even from my high-profile clients," said A S Kalson of a Delhi-based security. "Charlie's Angels are good on television but in real life it may not work," he said of the 1970s television series revolving around three glamourous female security agents and their mysterious boss. The Capital topped the country's crime-graph in terms of sexual assaults, posting around 360 attacks last year including the October 17 rape of a Swiss diplomat in her own car. New Delhi's Joint Police Commissioner Maxwell Pereira said his 70,000-strong department welcomed the entry of female PSOs. "We are all for this kind of developmental activity, and if women PSOs come it might have a salutary effect and attitudes may change," said Pereira, who is credited with solving several abduction-for-ransom cases in the corporate sector. "I feel that women if they can afford them would prefer having competent female guards if the PSOs are well-versed in martial arts and self-defence techniques and so there is no harm if Charlie's Angels do enter real life," the police officer said. Pooja Chowdhury, one of India's first female security escorts, said she chose the job because it was fun. "The pay package is good. We will earn what an engineer gets and the job is daring," said Chowdhary, a freestyle wrestler and a former policewoman. Former Indian commando K Roshan of Archer Security, who escorted Rebecca Mark, former chief of US-based Enron Corp. during her visit to India in 1990s, said women would prefer female guards. "Women
PSOs may have personal limitations but there are some women VIPs
who worry about their male guards," he added.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |