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 .
Stop acting like you are some expert or authority of the “Third World”.
Totally agree, he should have read your book “How to clean sh#t off your d#ck and other tricks I learned in the 3rd world” before commenting.
What for, I thought you were sharing your copy with him?
Don’t know or care if you are a religious person or not. But if you are, you may want to clean up your act before you meet your maker and learn a thing or two about just how cruel those with power over you can be when you are put in place. Of course if you have fantasies about you being sodomized by Israeli government employees or the workhorses of fallen angels, then keeping with your act is probably about as good a course as it gets for you to try to get your way.
Can’t even count on him to be an authority about what goes on in the US. Wasn’t he one of those “stop the steal” characters who was “standing by his man” Trump before and after the Trumpista insurrection on January 6, 2021? That says enough about the limits of the ability to play comparative politics.
It was a peaceful protest to protest the stolen election.
That’s like saying WWII was a series of minor skirmishes between a handful of nations.
The Air India jobs offer got super strong employee interest turnout because the Tatas run a good enough ship that people want to work for them and because a lot of people get jobs with the Tata-run companies based on the merit of their capabilities and then give Americans a run for the money in competition for work. But these jobs were for more manual work, and there is no shortage of plenty of such workers in India’s biggest cities and those living very close to the airport.
How did they all get the day off from the call center trying to sell me an extended warranty?
@DaveEdwards … +1 . Funny .
Not really.
Would asking which river they all sh#t in be funnier to you?
Not at all.
LOL
There were no other doctors to rape and murder at the hospital, apparently.
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.
China actually has the opposite problem, rapid population decline.
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.
Where and when do these stampeded in Canada take place?
Calgary obviously.
@Dave … +1 .
Not even funny.
It would be better if more jobs and job interviews were to be done online in order to avoid these kind of stampede like situations. I do not mean just in India but elsewhere too.
Mathew – I am disappointed in your prejudice, tone and attitude and also the “third world” comments from your readers! How do you characterize the stampede, gunshots you see outside the stores on black Friday doorbusters! Your readers are blissfully unaware or ignorant of the fact that India is the happening place these days! The US wants India to be the counterweight of China and irrespective of who is occupying the White House, that policy wouldn’t change! All US companies, including all legacy careers want to be there! They cry foul when Russian airspace is banned for them while Air India continue to use it! Everyone is an opportunist! Off late, I have noticed, your blog posts have become more of a political commentary than talking about airline and air travel! One example was your full throttle story about a theft at an airport shop involving a passenger of Indian origin:-) As if no theft is happening in airport stores….
It’s a blog. Matthew can choose to write about whatever topic pleases him. As for India, I think the focus should be on how a doctor in training gets raped and murdered while on duty at a hospital.
The dirty little secret about the Modi government is that nothing in the country is off limits from being subject to manipulation by the government for political purposes: everything from the Supreme Court of India to the electoral commission to the central bank to the tax authorities’ decisions — these are under the direct influence of the country’s thuggish political machinery who are the RSS brown shirts (in their youth and saffron later) and their fan boys.
Urban young adult unemployment in India has long been a problem in India, but it is even worse when the government is dishonest about the facts on the ground. This job-seeker scene in India is a sign of the sad mess that is the employment picture in India nowadays despite the headline economic numbers for the country.
Just remember there are more people in India that don’t have access to basic toilets than there are people in all of Europe combined.
It’s about a wash nowadays. Maybe things will be different in a century or so if India returns again to being richer per capita than Europe — as was the case for centuries until hit by the age of European conquest and colonialism around the world which enriched Europeans on the backs and wealth of indigenous peoples from all the other continents of the world.
That was only because they were ruled by Muslims.
The Hindu majority isn’t capable.
What hogwash.
Gross.