Throughout his career as electrician, 32-year old Mohammad Sarfaraz from Patna has been cherishing a dream flight to prosperity. A dream increasingly large number of youths of Bihar are enthralled about: the flight to Middle East. Eldest in family of four and married Sarfaraz has to look after two families.
With his father’s meagre income from contractual government job he could not complete his schooling. However, while working across India in domestic as well as industrial sector for more than twelve years he equipped himself with suitable skills and expertise in electrical field. Yet, despite technically on par, if not above, with those working in gulf he is still waiting for the turn of fate because of not holding a formal certificate.
During last one and a half decade number of people of the state going to Gulf has increased manifold. According to reports Bihar recently left Kerala behind in supplying maximum number of unskilled manpower to Middle East.
Substantially large number of emigrants from the state is engaged in skilled and semi-skilled jobs in the Gulf. More often than not these skills are acquired by informal means: learning by doing that is by assisting skilled workers like masons, mechanics, electricians, pipe fitters, carpenters, shuttering carpenters, plumbers, wielders etc. In the absence of proper channels of certification and counseling needed for applying for overseas job, most of the skilled workers have to resort to devious means.
Similar is the case of Intermediate Science passed Shadab Khan who is already working as a mechanical supervisor for a sub-contractor in Qatar. His dream has taken a leap further. Given his proven leadership skills and attributes among peers, he eyes an opportunity to grab a direct client employment or at least to switch to a major contractor. However for his inability to match with the hiring process of the client and other big companies which demand appropriate certificates, he is constrained to carry on with his present unfulfilling job.
Except few, most of the workers from Bihar are employed in the Middle East by contractors, sub- contractors or individuals. The obvious result is seen in their salaries that are far lesser than that of those who are directly hired by big companies, such as Aramco, Adnoc group, Sabic, Petrofac, KOC, KNPC, Qatar petroleum, Shell etc. Apart from handsome salaries these giant offers various other benefits like family visa, well-furnished accommodation, rotation leave, forty hour a week works etc to their directly hired employees. While those hired by small contractors, subcontractors and others get near to nothing in terms of facilities.
Like wise, hundreds of people of Nawada and Jamui district of Bihar work as technician, inspector and on posts as high as Engineer and Manager in Instrumentation and control stream. So embedded is the trend in few villages of these districts that if a newborn child is a boy it is said that an Instrument technician is born.
Yet, even in entire region of these districts, till recently training in Instrumentation and control stream was nowhere imparted. Most of the aspirants had to travel to places such as Kolkata, Mumbai, and Bangalore to get formally trained in the stream. Few others manage to extract jobs in Gulf by ‘jugaad’ (somehow managed). Although at present In Harnaut of neighboring Nalanda district, Ganga Memorial College of polytechnic is offering Diploma Engineering in the discipline, it is not well known among aspirants.
As the drive for localisation of jobs market is catching speed and competition for blue-collared jobs among workers from Bangladesh, Philippines, Nepal and some African countries is growing in Middle East; lack of skill and certification is putting Bihari workers on shakier ground.
It is not that the higher echelons in the government are unaware of the situation. According to an article back in 2013 then deputy chief minister, Sushil Modi had acknowledged the dearth of Gulf oriented training and certification. He had announced to start fifteen to twenty days training for the purpose. Perhaps as Mr. Modi immediately had to leave his office, it could not materialize.
The certification requirements for skilled workers could be considerably met by constituting government tests centre in each district of the state with facilities of skill upgradation, certification and counseling. Supervisory level institutes, on the pattern on Foreman Training Institute, Bangalore and Jamshedpur, are pertinent solution and will be helpful in unfolding the potential of ascending higher on career ladder.
Among many initiatives by private and social organisations, the Institute of Professional Metamorphosis (IPM), at Kulharia Complex near Gandhi Maidan Patna, with its substantial expertise in the field of customize training and consultancy in diverse range of skill pool is most evolved approach towards tacking such problem.
Fair enough, the courses and training should be relevant to the demand. Yet, as significant number of inhabitants of the state is substantially dependent on the remittance from outside for fulfilling basic needs, the government should be considerate enough to this lot of people who provide the much needed vitalizer to the economy of Bihar.
