A total of 16,427 registered private security agencies are active in India, as of January 28, the Parliament was told recently. Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, in a written reply to a question by Rajya Sabha member A. Vijaykumar, told the house that Gujarat has the highest number of private security agencies at 2,203, followed by 1,228 in Punjab and 1,116 in Haryana while Mizoram has only three.
The Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar has 20 agencies while Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh do not have any registered private security agency. Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have 78. The Ministry of Home Affairs in December 2020 issued revised guidelines for functioning of private security agencies in the country.
According to the new norms, the security agency personnel will have to go for six days mandatory training and there will be strict verifications of the persons or association of the persons who have applied for licenses. The norms also prescribed the eligibility conditions of the operator and other conditions for the approval of the licenses.
