Volunteers of the Tamil Nadu Home Guards Braved All Odds to Help Citizens During Chennai Rains

Members of the Tamil Nadu Home Guards displayed their commitment to duty in a very inspiring way when the city was submerged because of the rains and people were crying out for help.

By Tanaya Singh

November 28, 2015

Members of the Tamil Nadu Home Guards displayed their commitment to duty in a very inspiring way when Chennai was submerged because of the rains and people everywhere in the city needed help.

Tamil Nadu Home Guards is a voluntary organization.

Source: www.tamilnaduhomeguards.in

The functions and duties of the members include manning traffic points, crowd control, collection of information and intelligence, helping the police in maintaining internal security, and more. The organization is functioning since 1963 in all Police Districts and Commissionerates and each unit is headed by the Commandant/Superintendent of Police in districts and Commissioners of Police in the cities.

Following their motto of ‘Nishkam Sewa’ – selfless service to the community, the volunteers crossed neck-deep water without caring about any dangers to save hundreds of people from different parts of the city. These volunteers belong to many different professions and they come to help whenever there is an urgent need. They are businessmen, cyber security experts, shop owners and more.

Around 300 volunteers were sent for security work during the rains. And they came forward, making this work a priority over the safety of their own homes.

“When I told my wife I was going to help people, she was concerned. Water had entered our house too. So I had to leave them at a safe place and go for rescue work at A.G.S Colony in Velachery along with J. Sukumar, area commander (South), who is into a tiles business,” Chandrasekar Umapathy, Area Commander, West Zone, Home Guards told The Hindu. He runs a cyber security firm.

Other than him, D. Suresh Kumar, who is a Metro Water contractor by profession and has been serving in the Home Guards for the last two decades, was also among the volunteers. S. Murugesan, who runs a textile shop at Tiruvottiyur and is a platoon commander in the Home Guards, informed that many volunteers had fever because they were spending more than eight hours in the water every day. But they continued to rescue as many people as they could.

Those interested in joining the Tamil Nadu Home Guards can fill out the application here.

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