Battling bleak future at home, educated Indians desperate for construction work in Israel

Hundreds of educated young Indians are queuing up to get selected for jobs in war-torn Israel, citing increasing lack of well-paying work in their own country.

BBC reported seeing last week crowds of young men, many armed with graduate degrees, massed outside a university campus in Haryana state for construction jobs in Israel.

Gaza war

Israel is reportedly planning to hire 70,000 workers from countries like India and China to boost its construction sector after ousting some 80,000 Palestinian workers following the Hamas rampage in October.

The Indians seeking work in their places include plastering workers, steel fixers, and tile setters, the report said.

Poor income

One of them, Ranjeet Kumar, 31, said he had never managed to earn more than 700 rupees a day despite having two degrees and even after having passed a government test as a diesel mechanic.

With a seven-member family to support, he has until now worked variously as a painter, steel fixer, labourer, automobile workshop technician, and a surveyor.

Growing unemployment

If he gets employed in Israel, he will earn about ₹1,37,000 a month along with accommodation and medical benefits.

"There are no secure jobs here. Prices are going up. I am not financially stable even after graduating nine years ago," Kumar told BBC.

Some 10,000 workers from India will reportedly be hired. Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are accepting job applications.

College degrees

In Haryana, the Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak city is hosting tests for a few thousand applicants from across the country.

Most of those seeking jobs in Israel are, like Kumar, a part of India's sprawling and precarious informal economy, working without formal contracts and benefits.

Like Kumar, many hold college degrees but end up doing casual construction jobs after failing to get secure employment. Many juggle multiple jobs to augment earnings.

Bleak future

Another person seeking work in Israel is Sanjay Verma, who graduated in 2014, obtained a technical education diploma, and spent six years attempting over a dozen government exams for positions in the police, paramilitary, and railways – and failed everywhere.

Parbat Singh Chauhan, 35, said he had slipped back into uncertainty after the twin shocks of the 2016 demonetisation ban and the later pandemic lockdown.

Not afraid of war

Ram Avatar, 40, is a tile setter from Haryana with two decades of experience. He tried to get work in Dubai, Italy, and Canada but couldn't afford the exorbitant fees demanded by agents. He is trying his luck with the Israel offer.

"We know there's a war going on in Israel. I am not afraid of death. We can die here too," the BBC quoted him as saying.

Official data

Government data surprisingly show a declining trend in joblessness - from 6 per cent in 2017-18 to 4 per cent in 2021-22.

Santosh Mehrotra, a development economist and visiting professor at the University of Bath, attributes this to the inclusion of unpaid work as jobs in government data.

"It's not that jobs are not happening. It's just that organised jobs are barely growing and at the same time, the number of young people looking for jobs is increasing," he said.

High unemployment

Unemployment is falling but remains high, says a report by the Azim Premji University.

After stagnating since the 1980s, the share of workers with regular wages or salaried work had begun increasing in 2004 - 18 to 25 per cent for men and 10 to 25 per cent for women, the report said.

Pandemic, slowdown

Since 2019, however, the pace of regular wage jobs had decreased due to a "growth slowdown and the pandemic".

The report found that above 15 per cent of graduates - and a whopping 42 per cent for graduates under 25 years - had no jobs in India after the pandemic.