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Q I am a poor landless farm labourer. My son, who is a pehlwan, failed his matriculation exam, three years in a row. What kind of a job can he get? — Jasbir Singh

A Ask your son to visit a private security agency in the nearest city, or, if you prefer, the nearest metropolitan city, to get a job as a private security guard. Now, companies do not get their own guards, but outsource their work to private security agencies. At present, more than 50,000 security agencies are working in the country, all of which are Indian firms. The government policy bars foreign players in the sector.

Today, more than five million people are engaged in this profession in our country and the sector is generating more than one million additional jobs every year. The high growth in private security is primarily driven by demand from sectors such as retail, construction, hotel and tourism, and from large manufacturing units. With a number of shopping malls cropping up, there is also a surge in the demand for female security guards, who currently account for about 5 per cent of the workforce in the private security segment. Also, more than 20,000 Indians work as security guards in West Asia and Africa.

Don’t worry about any qualification requirement. The average qualification of a private security guard is matriculation, which means a substantial number of guards have studied less than Class 10. Further, the majority of people engaged in this profession started as unskilled poor from villages.