The Central Association of Private Security Industry (CAPSI) has tied up with the Quality Council of India for certification and rating of private security agencies, with an aim to enhance employability scope of security guards and also their credibility in the eyes of those employing them.
Interestingly, this comes at a time when private securityguards or watchmen have become talk of the nation as the term”chowkidar” has been popularised by Prime Minister Narendra Modithrough ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign ahead of elections.
CAPSI, an apex body of security guards, joined hands withthe council last month for certification and rating programme for the privatesecurity agencies.
Christened as Security Agencies Rating Scheme (SARS), theunique process of standardisation will help the agencies enhance theircredibility and consequently their business.
While CAPSI and the Quality Council of India (QCI) will be the joint scheme owners, thegoverning structure of the scheme shall be under a multi-stakeholder steeringcommittee (MSC).
The MSC is supported by a technical committee and acertification committee constituted by CAPSI and the QCI.
As per a specified procedure, a consensus based technicalcriteria has been formulated for the private security agencies that would beevaluated by a competent third party certification bodies.
These bodies are accredited by the National AccreditationBoard for Certification Bodies (NABCB), which is part of the internationalsystem of equivalence of accreditation and certifications, in accordance withappropriate international standards.
The private securityindustry, comprising over 85 lakh guards, is one of the largest employmentgenerating sectors of the country. There are over 22,000 private securityagencies which employ these guards.
Operating in the private security environment, the majorityof private security agencies fall in the ambit of MSME enterprises.