Is the watchman in your building really there for security and protection... or is he just a glorified odd-job man?
Residents have expressed serious concerns about the role of the so called 'watchmen' who often turn a blind eye to suspicious people entering their buildings at odd hours.
Residents interviewed by Gulf News were of the opinion that building owners should put more emphasis on the security of the residents living in their apartments while appointing a watchman.
According to them, just having a watchman sleeping in his quarters does not serve the purpose of having one. They added that complaints made to their building owners have fallen on deaf ears.
Qasim Abbas who lives near Al Nahda area in Sharjah, said: "They are good for nothing. Once I was waiting on the fifth floor for the lift. It unusually took a long time to come up. After a while I heard a ring similar to a telephone ring coming continuously.
"Then it struck me that someone might have been trapped in the lift and could be ringing the emergency bell. I ran down looking for our watchman. I kept on knocking at the watchmen's door but there was no response.
"I went around the building and found him chatting with the watchman of an adjacent building. Anything could have happened to the person inside the lift. Do you think such a negligence should go unpunished?"
Nineteen-year-old Shagufta Khan, a resident of Karama, was quite frightened when two Chinese women selling DVDs got aggressive with her when she refused to buy them.
"I was alone at home. It was around 10.45pm when the door bell rang. I looked through the peep hole and saw two Chinese women. I ignored them and did not open the door. But they kept on ringing the bell.
"Finally I opened the door. One of them asked for some water. I took pity on her. They looked quite exhausted and so I called them in. But no sooner they came in they started pestering me to buy a DVD from them for Dh25. I said I'll only pay Dh10. They were not ready to sell it at that price so I told them that I do not want to buy.
"One of them gripped my foot, urging me to buy the DVDs. I got worried and told them to get out of the house or else I would call the police. One of them then hit me on the shoulder saying "why are you calling the police?" I was so scared. I just ended up buying some DVDs and got rid of them.
"I know it is my fault. I should not have invited them in. But now I wonder how they were allowed to enter the building. I went down to the watchmen's room, but he was sleeping."
Vikram Arya, living in Karama, said: "The watchman are never there when you need them. You only find them on the first of every month, knocking at your door, demanding for money for cleaning the car three days a week and running odd jobs like paying your electricity bills, and in case you need something to be repaired or replaced in the house."
The watchmen, however defended the complaints made by residents against them. According to Abdul Hussain, a Bangladeshi watchman: "We are always alert. It is our job. If the residents are unhappy do you think I would have been around? We earn less than Dh1,000. So we compensate by cleaning the cars of the residents to make some extra money."
Hanif Kutty, another watchman said: "We have to clean the floors, look after the maintenance of the buildings, and run odd jobs like paying the electricity bills etc. So it is impossible for us to remain in front of the apartment's entrance 24 hours a day.
"We are humans too. With the limited wages we receive this is all we can do. If the residents want a 24 hours service they can go to the building owners and ask for someone exclusively to guard their buildings."
Gulf News
