HOME GUARDS TRAINING

I am asked to write this article on a specific subject,

Home Guards Training. Rather than resorting to repititions
of what is already known and codified in Home Guards Manuals,
I venture here to touch upon the place of a holistic training
programme in Home Guards setup.

The backdrop of the voluntary nature and uncertain

tenure of service in the Home Guards necessiates its training
programmes to be capsuled in short-term courses, ranging from
five days to a month to avoid long absences of the volunteers
from their homes. The short-term nature of the training
underlines the need of repeated training courses in Home
Guards as a device of a stratified and stepped-up training
plan. A holistic training scheme needs to be programmed to
these short-term courses. I do not go here to the brasstacks
of a training programme in Home Guards for obvious reasons,
and restrict myself to the scope of the training programmes
to make it holistic and complete.

The two facts of a holistic training programme are

internal and external orientations, which in final analysis,
complement each other to creat a complete training programme.

INTERNAL ORIENTATION

Internal Orientation is the most neglected facet of a

training programme in the present world. The basic
configuration of internal orientation is founded on right
motivation, professional attitude and creation of a truly
committed persona. The voluntary nature of Home Guards
services renders the internal orientation more basic to
Home Guards Training rather than the other way round.
The ephemeral nature and uncertain tenure of the Home Guards
service necessiate a strong foundation of the internal
orientation to sustain interest in the service. Its absence
manifests in low turnout of volunteers when called for
service and poor performance. Unlike career services, there
is no adhesive of financial guarantee and perks, and job
security in Home Guards service to bind the volunteers
irrevocably to the Home Guards Service. The absence renders
the need of internal orientation all the more important in
Home Guards organisation. The need of internal!sat ion of
Maslow’s need hierarchy comes to play here as the internal
orientation spurs the need of internal!sat ion. Sans
internal orientation. Home Guards service is hollow, and
Home Guards service sans internal orientation is directionless,
Human nature being what it is, the spark of voluntary
service, once ignited, needs to be consistently stoked and
sustained to harness the maximum out of it. This need can
be met only by liberal dose of internal orientation in the
training programme. Home Guards can ignore the need only
at its own peril. The fact is that extant Home Guards
training programmes nowhere in India have internal orientation
incorporated in its agenda. This shortfall has arrested
the growth of Home Guards movement in India.

EXTERNAL ORIENTATION

Present Home Guards braining basically is external

orientation programmes. External Orientation is constituted.
of Knowledge Orientation and skill orientation. Present
training programmes identify knowledge orientation with
indoor classes and skill orientation with outdoor classes.
Here also training contents in both programmes in extant
Home Guards training are rather passe and do not meet the
operational needs in the field. The need of updating
training contents is largely forgotten. I round off this
discussion with the observation that the knowledge
orientation programmes in a purposeful training plan should
include topics like history of Home Guards, its organisational
structures, case studies of model operations, principles
of time and space management, basics of inter-person
relationship and courteous conduct in addition to what
is already there. And skill orientation programme in a
utility based training plan should cover latest researches
and tools of rescue operations including medical aid,
handling of computers and information technology gadgets,
driving, methods of identififation and defusing of
sophisticated bombs, basics of electric wirings in addition
to present topics. The skill oriented training programme
must create real skills unlike being an eye-wash as at
present, as the skill is meant to save lives and bring
order.Further, the skill oriented training programme in
Home Guards can be either physical or strategic in nature.
Physical skill needs are addressed by parade and physical
training. Strategic skills useful in Home Guards operations,
are addressed by outdoor demonstrations and rehearsals. The
strategic skills can be either managerial or operational in
nature. The managerial skill is required to address
organisational matters including planning, communication
transportation and control that are central to Home Guards
operations whij^e operational skill comes to force and
useful during actual operations.

INTERLINKED

The two facets of Home Guards Training, namely internal

and external orientations are not distinct and independent
entities, removed from each other. They are interlinked and
constitute a holistic training programme. An external
orientation like physical skill harnessed in the parade
ground positively contributes to reinforce the internal
orientation of a professional attitude like discipline.
Acquiring stratigic skills contribute to strengthen right
professional attitude and motivation. Similarly, the
knowledge of Home Guards history, its objectives and case
studies add to motivation towards Home Guards service.

Home Guards being an organisation of voluntary

service, there is a need of making its training programme
a pleasure-event to attract more and more volunteers to partake in the programme.
It is training that differentiates a Home Guard from who is not.
Therefore, the success of Home Guard setup depends
on the success-story of its training programmes.