SHILLONG: Family will worry but that is not reason enough for them to sulk over long working hours and life in an unknown city at a time when the world is witnessing one of the worst pandemics of the millennium. This is because they are among the frontline workers.
As health workers take care of the core crisis, jawans of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and state police personnel maintain law and order in the city so that administration and economy work at ease.
CRPF jawans and local police personnel have been deployed in the city to manage crowd and vehicles as the third phase of the nationwide lockdown continues.
“I came here in January when the unrest over citizenship act was going on. After that, this started. I am not sure when I can go home,” said GP Mondol, a jawan from West Bengal.
The jawans dressed in fatigues have to stand through most of the eight-hour shift.
When asked whether his family was worried after the media flashed reports of BSF personnel testing positive for COVID-19 in Tripura, Mondol said, “Of course, family will worry but this is our duty. Risks are always there as our duty is outdoors and we come across so many people.”
RK Sharma, a CRPF jawan from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, also came here in the beginning of the year and yearns to see his wife and children. “I talk to them over phone. I had come to Shillong eight years back and the city has changed a lot. We have postings and this is the nature of our work. Our families are aware and we have to adjust,” said Sharma.
The jawans commute in CRPF buses and are not allowed to move outside the barracks. “We will not be allowed to meet our families now. It does not matter whether I am from faraway Madhya Pradesh or he is from nearby Tripura,” said Sharma as he pointed to his senior Arjun Poddar.
SF-10 constable Lillikson Sangma, who joined the force last year, is also away from home town Tura and is staying with other personnel in Mawiong. The women cops are put up in an accommodation near Red Cross. While there is food supply for the jawans on duty, many constables of the Meghalaya Police have to fend for themselves. A woman constable on duty said her shift is for 12 hours but there is no food distribution. “I bring food from home every day. When I go home, I do not feel my legs after hours of standing,” she said, intermittently chewing her food.
Lack of clean public toilet remains a perpetual problem for women police personnel and they have to look for a decent house to relieve themselves.
Delay in payment of salary only adds insult to their injury. “We have not received last month’s salary so we are not sure about deductions,” said the woman constable.
There are other problems too like flouting of safety norms. For instance, maintaining social distancing becomes difficult for CRPF jawans when “we have to travel in small buses and interact with unknown people”.
A jawan said on condition of anonymity that the beds in the barrack are placed in close proximity but added that “we have to understand the government’s problem in managing so many personnel”. Another jawan contradicted saying one-metre distance is maintained between beds. But both agreed that sanitisers and masks are the only weapons they have to protect themselves.
Manshai Kalong, another SF-10 constable, said their accommodation in Mawiong is spacious and 5-6 persons sleep in a hall.
The amenities for these frontline workers may not be the best but again, there cannot be an iota less of sincerity on duty. “That is what frontline workers are for. We face problems but when on duty, people’s problems come first,” said another police constable in a tone that sounded sad than complaining.
