Mumbai: In a another display of the ongoing unemployment crisis in India, thousands of job seekers thronged Mumbai's Kalina area on Tuesday for a walk-in interview organized by Air India Airport Services Limited.
The company had advertised for 2,216 positions for the role of 'Handyman,' a job involving various repair and maintenance tasks. Despite the limited number of vacancies, a great number of applicants showed up, leading to an uncontrollable situation outside the recruitment office.
The scene outside the recruitment office had turned chaotic as 25,000+ candidates arrived to vie for just 600 loader positions. This is a sheer reflection of the dire state of joblessness in the country. The immense crowd soon became unmanageable, forcing the organizers to request applicants to submit their resumes and disperse.
George Abraham, General Secretary of the Aviation Industry Employees Guild, criticized the mismanagement of the recruitment process. He said, "The recruitment drive was poorly handled. People were asked to come with a demand draft for thousands of vacancies, but we advised them not to deposit money immediately and that they would be called later," he said.
The dramatic scenes have outrage on social media. Many have pointed to the event as a stark indicator of the nation's unemployment issues. Political parties, including the Congress, have seized upon the incident to critique the current administration's handling of employment and economic policies.
The official notification had announced walk-in interviews from July 12 to July 16 for various positions, with the largest number being for handymen on Tuesday. Air India issued another notification extending the application deadline for certain positions until July 14.
The recruitment drive includes senior customer service executive roles and customer service executive positions, with 343 and 706 vacancies respectively. Age relaxations apply, with a maximum age of 33 for senior roles and 28 for regular positions, along with specific relaxations for OBC, SC, and ST candidates.
This is not an isolated incident. Recently, a video from Bharuch, Gujarat, showed 1,800 applicants arriving for just 10 hotel job positions, resulting in chaotic scenes where the crowd broke railings outside the office. These incidents underscore the severity of the unemployment crisis gripping the nation.
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