For Mumbai’s security guards, the Covid-19 lockdown has made work both harder and riskier

Before March 24, Satpal Pal’s routine as a building security guard in Mumbai was simple: washing residents’ cars in the morning, keeping track of visitors entering the gate and unwinding at the end of a 12-hours shift in the tiny watchmen’s quarter at the back of the building compound. For this, he has been earning Rs 10,000 a month.

After March 24, however, the list of Pal’s duties has grown much longer.

“Since the lockdown started, we have to keep the gate closed all the time, make all delivery boys wait outside, give them sanitiser to clean their hands and guard all the delivered packages till the residents come and pick them up,” said Pal, 34, one of three watchman employed at a housing society in Mumbai’s Andheri suburb. “We also have to fumigate the entire compound every evening, which we used to do just once a week before the lockdown.”

For all this additional work, Pal has received a one-time bonus of Rs 3,000.

The Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown on March 24 – at just four hours’ notice – as an attempt to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus or Covid-19. With no transport services, no wages and starvation looming in sight, the...

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