College students if you are lying to your family beware! Your parents may have a plan to outsmart you by hiring "spy girls" to keep an eye on you.
A large number of parents in the capital are involving private detectives to track their children’s movements on and off their campuses.
"In most of the colleges in Delhi, there are girls who are working as a campus detective on a part-time basis. These girls are trained by us on how to carry out their operation and keep it a secret.
"I can’t reveal you the figures as it is against our norms," Kunwar Vikram Singh, President, Association of Detective Agencies of India, said.
"These detectives generally study in a college, so it’s easy for them to enter campuses. All they have to do is study, involve in group activities, observe a person’s action and pass on the details to us. We arrange all the information obtained from our detectives and give it to the students parents," Vikram added.
The demand for these girls detectives have arisen from the increased intervention of parents to find out the activities of their wards in and around campus. There are certain involvements, which are not considerable among parents.
"Most of the parents who approached us are concerned about their ward’s portrayal of different character in and outside home. There are different areas of concern for which parents approach us," CEO, Indian Detective Agency, Sanjay Singh, said.
"These girls get in to groups with whom their ward is hanging around, any undesirable relationship, which could spoil his or her career and matrimonial chances, drug abuse or alcohol, late night hanging out with friends. We pull out the information about it through our campus detectives," Singh said.
These girls are picked up by the agencies through their secret sources in the campuses or by publishing an advertisement in the newspapers. The agencies assign work to these girl detectives depending on the parents’ requirement.
These operations are known as "under-cover operation" among these detective girls.
"We woo these girls through our sources or through putting an ad in the newspapers. Many times girls approach us individually with reference of our sources," Vikram said.
The girls earn handsome amount ranging anywhere between Rs 8,000- Rs 12,000 depending upon their operation, which they considered as an allowance or their pocket-money, he said.
These detectives also undergo a training session on how to carry out the spying operation without revealing any detail. Detective agencies have their own criteria for imparting training, which could span over three to four months or 20 to 30 hours depending on the assignment, he said.
"The safety and security of girls is of paramount importance for we people, but here the girls are very smart and their track record of success is 100 per cent," Singh said.
So, are the parents of these girls informed?
"Parents of these girls generally are informed about their daughter working as a part-time campus spy, but where they are not informed, we encourage girls to clear out things to them to avoid any future problems and to avoid fears of backing out," Vikram added