In India, where the median wage is about $200 per month, working for Air India is an aspiration…and a ticket out of poverty. As Air India transforms itself in the Tata era, it is hiring…and apparently having no trouble finding candidates, based on a stampede at Mumbai Airport during a recruitment drive.
Mumbai Airport Stampede As 25,000 People Jostle For 600 Air India Jobs
Video shows upwards of 25,000 applicants descending upon Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) for an in-person recruitment event. Air India’s Airport Services division was looking to hire 600 airport loaders.
Assuming Air India did hire 600 from that group (and that’s not even necessarily reasonable because there were other avenues for hiring like online applications), that represents less than 2.5% of the crowd–predominantly men–were offered jobs.
Earlier I wrote about how airlines in the US are seeing flight attendants battle for higher wages, but also have a similar pool to choose from when seeking new hires. We see that around the world: airlines have no issue filling low-skilled positions and the “stampede” in India suggests that a low starting wage is no deterrent at all.
I don’t necessarily have a policy prescription or even an opinion here…it’s just something very interesting to observe and a natural pushback to calls for higher wages…
image: @freepressjournal / Instagram
Nothing new about stampedes in India . I was stampeded at an Indian Airlines counter , at check-in , and was saved by a good British Airways agent to came over to help me . And these stampeders were merely those confirmed who were checking-in .
Anyhow, jobs in the third world usually require baksheesh to the appropriate intermediary .
How did they all get the day off from the call center trying to sell me an extended warranty?
@DaveEdwards … +1 . Funny .
Not really.
This showcases the danger of severe overpopulation. No one is better off with that many people crammed on a relatively small landmass. People there should not be having children unless they can provide a proper lifestyle. China is also a big problem but it has more land and 25% of their population doesn’t shed on the street in open view. They have high speed trains. Less people would suffer, less people will be victims of violent crime, and quality of life would go up if the population dropped 80% in India in a generation.
We know all the environmentalists are lying that they care about the environment and aren’t just doing what they do for more government power because they don’t speak out about the number 1 cause of environmental harm and pollution: overpopulation in India, China, and Africa.
Just for fun let’s explore your premise for a moment. Let’s pick a wealthy country like… ours for this.
You might be able sell population control to the left as they’re already fans of birth control, abortion access, and pro-environmental policies. It would still be a tough sell but you could make the argument with a lot of validity.
Try that at a GOP gathering and you’re liable to get shot. You’re talking about people who want 10 year old rape victims to have to bear children. The majority don’t even believe in global warming or climate change so trying to sell any ecological benefits is just not gonna work.
It’s extremely disingenuous to call environmentalists liars because they don’t try to tell people how many children they can have.
Is the answer to a sustainable planet to have huge NPG (Negative Population Growth) until humans only number a billion or two on Earth? Yes. But if you can’t sell such a manifestly apparent policy in the USA then what chance do you have to do so in developing countries? Try convincing our political right that they need to enact policies that restrict population so we can push other countries to do the same. If we tell other countries to curb populations without doing so first ourselves we’re just hypocrites.
Thanks for your fact-free post.
Just look at how many of them stampede for jobs in most large Canadian cities. Hordes of low wage workers or unemployed students. Neoliberal policies brought to you by corrupt politicians.
And Canada is now India 2.0. No joke. And… I am a second generation Indian too, who left Canada for the U.S. 6 years ago.