Rohtak: Haryanvi workers line up inside Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, while Bihari and Rajasthani workers crowd outside the university’s gates, clutching their passports and papers. Their goal is to go work in Israel.
A team of twelve Israeli officials are hiring 10,000 workers from India for construction, carpentry, tiling, masonry and electric welding jobs. And hundreds of Indian workers have shown up, hopeful about finding work in Israel. But on day four of the six-day recruitment drive, they were told that this initiative is only for workers from Haryana — and not from other states.
Now they’re left in the lurch, desperate about bagging a job as promising as what the Israeli government is offering them: a monthly salary of Rs 1.37 lakh.
The Haryana government first put out notices in December for candidates to fill 10,000 positions in Israel — an initiative organised jointly by the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN), the Haryana Skill Development Mission, and the Foreign Cooperation Department of Haryana. Around 300, 500, and 600 workers showed up on the first three days of the drive, respectively.
Unsure on whether to hedge their bets, workers from other states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are now simply waiting outside MDU, hoping to be tested after workers from Haryana. They were notified about the recruitment drive at MDU from the National Skill Development Center.
It was pure chaos, according to an official at the HKRN, who asked not to be named. And to thin the crowd, they had to make sure that only workers from Haryana could apply.
Police officials are now checking every worker’s identity cards before letting them into labs at the Department of Engineering, where the skill tests are being conducted. And there seems to be a constant flow: the allure of a job, even in war-torn countries, is enough to keep workers coming back in the cold to line up and wait.
“So what if there is a war going on in Israel right now?” asked Harpal Kumar, 31, a local from Hisar who came back a second day to try and apply under a different skill — but was denied. “Unemployment in India is also a war.”
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Interstate troubles
The workers attending the skill test aren’t bothered about the ongoing war in Israel because this is a Haryana government initiative — and a government stamp of approval must also guarantee safety.
“This is a hiring program by the state government, look, the Chief Minister’s face is on the posters,” said 26-year-old Harjeet Singh, who gave a skill test for iron bending. “So if the government is organising it, they will take care.”
The poster he was pointing to welcomed the applicants to the test centre, and had the tagline “Transforming Haryana through a “Go Global Approach.”
“Israel is a strong country anyway,” said another applicant, Tejas Yadav. “They’ve crushed Palestine, Indians will be safe because the government is giving guarantee.”
But right outside the university’s gates, confusion reigned over which government was responsible for organising the drive — since many of the workers who’d travelled for days to reach Rohtak had got the notification from the NSDC.
“Many Haryanvi workers don’t even have passports!” said Rakesh Singh from Rajasthan, waving his passport in the air — though it was wrapped carefully in a black plastic bag. “What are they lining up for? There are others who have the necessary experience.”
Singh had travelled from Rajasthan and spent the last four days waiting to give the skill test, until he was asked to wait outside the campus gates on Friday. He has worked construction jobs in the Middle East — Abu Dhabi and parts of Qatar — on and off for a decade, and is now looking for a way to go back abroad. Wrapped in shawls and wearing sweaters and monkey caps, Singh and others like him plan on continuing to camp outside the university until they’re completely sure that they won’t be called in for a test.
The HKRN official quoted above told ThePrint that trucks full of workers had suddenly descended on the campus, creating a logistical nightmare. But the workers from out of state — the bulk of whom are from Bihar and Rajasthan — feel they have a right to try their hand.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Border Authority (PIBA) is conducting the drive. They’re looking to hire 10,000 workers from Haryana, and will be looking at other states too, as the high turnout is a positive indication, according to diplomatic sources.
Unemployment in India paints a complex picture. The rate of unemployment has declined to 6.6 per cent in the July-September period, according to the Period Labour Force Survey, but the youth unemployment rate is at 17.3 per cent. This is coupled with a surge in educational attainment and a rising trend of self-employment, which has increased to 18.3 per cent. This suggests that India needs to be able to generate more jobs for educated youth.
Harjeet, for example, is a 12th-grade graduate and comes from a land-owning family but hasn’t been able to keep a stable job. Even though he’d given the test the previous day, he’d returned on Friday to accompany his 23-year-old brother Rupak, an engineering student, give his skill test.
“If there was work here, why would I want to leave?” asked Harjeet. “And why would I encourage my brother to leave too?”
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Desperation to leave
Even if all workers don’t share this desperation to leave, they understand what drives it.
Army aspirant Pavan Kumar, 21, was waiting outside MDU’s engineering department wrapped in shawls. He had driven his friend, a construction worker to the university on his bike, and was waiting to take him back home.
“I don’t want to leave, our country has a lot,” he said, but quickly followed it up with a caveat. “I mean, my path is clear and that’s why I want to stay — but there’s very little opportunity for my friend here in India.”
This sentiment shared by workers from other states too.
“I’d rather wait here for a chance than continue waiting without any options,” said plumber Santosh Kumar Gupta, 35, from Bihar. He has a family of seven to support, and came with a group of five others by bus — all six spent the last three nights camping in the cold on Rohtak’s streets.
Another 26-year-old, Monu Kumar, had taken the day off from his job as a plumber in Gurgaon to sit for the test. He’d travelled to Dubai before to try for a job, and is still enamoured by the promise of a job abroad.
“After all, war is everywhere. We can die everywhere. Work is more important — who knows, I could always die here in India too,” said Kumar.