Mumbai: Near-stampede at Air India job drive as thousands turn up for 1,800 vacancies

A recruitment drive for airport loaders by Air India Airport Services Ltd. in Mumbai on Tuesday (July 16) led to chaotic scenes and a stampede-like situation as thousands of unemployed job aspirants turned up to apply for the few jobs on offer.

More than 15,000 people reportedly jostled in the long queue for hours to submit their resumes for about 1,800 vacancies.

The minimum qualification for the posts was SSC / 10^th pass and the minimum age was 23. The salary would be between ₹20,000 and 30,000, depending on the overtime allowance one earned. The positions were on a fixed-term contract basis for three years.

Reflection of high unemployment

A reflection of the high unemployment in the country is not only the number of candidates who have applied for the posts, but also the high qualifications of some applicants and the distances many of them travelled to attend the walk-in drive.

According to a report by NDTV, one candidate doing second year BBA travelled 400 km, another was a BA degree holder, and a third person from Rajasthan’s Alwar had an MCom degree.

Gruelling wait 

The organisers were obviously not prepared for such a huge turnout of candidates. There were reports that the applicants had to wait for hours without food and water. The Air India staff then told the candidates to submit their resumes and leave the spot.

The general secretary of the Aviation Industry Employees Guild, George Abram, claimed that almost 50,000 jobseekers had turned up for the interview according to his sources, and that the recruitment process was mismanaged. He said they had warned the company against conducting such drives. He said the situation became so bad that the police had to be called. He said this showed the joblessness among the youth.

Ankleshwar incident

The incident comes days after a video went viral about a similar incident in Gujarat’s Ankleshwar where about 2,000 people turned up for just 10 posts in a private firm.

Reacting to the Ankleshwar video, the Congress had said that it “exposed the BJP’s Gujarat model”, and that it was imposing this model of unemployment across the country.

Congress attacks BJP

After the Air India recruitment video went viral, Varsha Gaikwad, Congress MP from Mumbai North Central, said the unemployment situation has become so bad in the past 10 years that youngsters are ready to fight wars for Russia and Israel.

“Whenever they hear of jobs, they gather in thousands and there is a fear of stampede,” said Gaikwad in a post in Hindi on X.