Fresh engineering graduates from rural Nashik cash in on IT job demand

Hrishikesh Bodke from rural Nashik secured a job in IT sector amid severe job crisis during pandemic (Photo Credit- Vaibhav Sanap)As offices shifted to the digital mode of work over the course of the pandemic, IT firms ramped up recruitment drives in response to the need for more hands on deckNashik: Santosh Kangane from Gulwanch village in Nashik was in his final year of engineering when the lockdown was imposed. Like scores of others, he feared he would drown in the pool of the growing unemployment figure in the country, amid the pandemic. “After high school, my friends advised me not to choose engineering, as many remained unemployed even after graduating. But my parents had a lot of expectations of me, and I decided to pursue engineering,” said the 23-year-old.However, his anxiety dissipated after he landed a job in Wipro in 2021 — when the pandemic was still raging and most companies were struggling to stay afloat.“I didn't think I'd find a job so quickly, especially when the lockdown had slowed down the economy,” Kangane added.After Covid-19 broke out across the world in 2020, students and job aspirants were seemingly staring at a bleak future. Companies had imposed a freeze on recruitments, and many had started laying off employees.But it was relatively smooth sailing for students from the rural areas of Nashik who completed their engineering course in 2020 and 2021. Most managed to secure jobs in the information technology (IT) sector.Harshal Awhad landed a job in IT sector amid severe layoffs during pandemic, Nimgaon, Nashik (Photo Credit- Vaibhav Sanap)Harshal Awhad from Nimgaon in rural Nashik was part of this lucky bunch. He studied mechanical engineering and got placed in Cognizant after completing another six-month course.“I had never imagined I'd get a job during Covid times. I realised there was a huge manpower demand in the IT sector and cashed in,” the 21-year-old told 101Reporters.A digital shift In recent years, hiring in the IT sector saw an unexpected surge. In fact, the country’s four major IT service providers — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies, which employ more than one-fourth of India’s total workforce — recruited around 1,20,000 freshers in FY22, according to News18.Furthermore, TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Infosys ramped up their hiring in the second quarter of FY22 and recruited over 50,000 people. This took their total recruitments to more than one lakh (1,02,517) in the first six months of the financial year. While one may wonder how such employment opportunities cropped up at IT firms, at a time when most companies were laying off large chunks of their workforce, the human resources department of Wipro attributes it to the spurt of digitalisation.“The IT sector was expected to offer vacancies in five to 10 years, but the lockdown expedited the process,” said a Wipro human resources executive, requesting anonymity. “Everything moved online — from banking and shopping to education and offices. This opened up more job opportunities for fresh engineering graduates from rural areas.”Moreover, the introduction of remote and hybrid work during the pandemic — an added effect of digitalisation — also increased pressure on the IT sector, calling for more hands on deck and ushering in a spike in recruitment.“Direct campus recruitment rose due to the increased workload,” explained Suraj Roy from the HR department of Mindtree. “Companies are trying to get work done by hiring and training freshers. The recruitment process is the same, but hirings are now being done on a larger scale.”Spotlight on the talentLending another perspective to this spike in IT recruitments from rural Nashik, NASSCOM Vice President (Industry Initiatives) KS Vishwanathan attributes it to more than just the newly adopted work-from-home model of operation.Speaking to 101Reporters, he said there's a larger strategic plan to take work to where the talent is — a plan that was accelerated into action by the advent of Covid. The IT industry's discovery of digital talent in what he called "emerging towns" — Nashik among them — was sharp and quick. Vishwanathan said it allowed the workforce, scattered by the lockdown and often residents of Tier-2 cities and small towns, to rejoin work. "This trend will continue," he added, on work being redirected from the existing IT hubs of India. "NASSCOM is working with state and central governments to develop the next 10-15 cities in the country as micro IT hubs, taking their number from eight to 20. In fact, IT companies part of NASSCOM reported that during Covid, IT services were being delivered from 170 different locations across India. The push now is on developing these centres into hubs."This hiring spree made one Hrishikesh Bodke’s dream a reality. He graduated in civil engineering in 2021. As the pandemic had severely affected the construction sector, he had applied for a job in the IT sector and was hired by Capgemini. “My job will make my parents’ and my life better,” said the 22-year-old from Nashik’s Nimgaon.Furthermore, Vishakha Shankar, a talent acquisition specialist at Pen Mark, an IT firm in Pune, said the company had been receiving a much higher bulk of job applications since the Covid outbreak — more than 150 job applications a day, a significant spike from 20 to 25 a day earlier. She also alluded to another reason why aspirants from rural Nashik landed jobs amid such economic turbulence in India. “Companies hire on the basis of skill and quality, but rural youth have comparatively lower salary expectations,” she said. “I’ve also observed that rural youth work harder than those from urban areas.” Advantage for womenIn addition to added opportunities for the rural youth, the introduction of the work-from-home model has benefitted women tremendously. Often the victim of familial pressures, being disallowed from working because it involved travelling or moving to another city, this new normal in the IT sector altered the course of their lives.Take Sarika Gangurde, for instance. Her life changed after she was offered a job at TCS, Pune.“Child marriages are common in rural areas, and my hometown is no different. My friends got married when they were 15 or 16. But today, I earn around Rs 27,000 a month,” said the 22-year-old from Malegaon, Nashik. “This job not only made me financially independent, but also freed me from the shackles of patriarchy.” In fact, IT firms also retained many of their female employees by giving them the option to work remotely.“Looking at the problems that women from rural areas face, we gave some of them the freedom to work from home permanently,” said Roy.

Public transport in rural Maharashtra sorely missed; MRSTC strike continues into seventh week

Accusing the state of not valuing their work, especially during the pandemic, the striking staff are demanding better wages and working conditions, and a merger with the state government.Nashik: For Class 11 girls Rutuja, Rasika, Swamini and Samiksha from Gulwanch - a village in rural Nashik, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses are a lifeline to education and a future. They travel 30 km each day to GMD College located in Sinnar Taluka by bus to prepare for the National Cadet Course. It’s always been a safe and reliable option. “Often we stay late for training so we travel by bus even around 7-8 pm and we have never experienced any insecurity. Rape incidents occur in government buses in cities even under 24-hour CCTV surveillance. But we never hear of such incidents or complaints about MSRTC buses, even though we live in a remote area and travel late at night." But for the two months, MSRTC workers have been on strike and there has been no bus service. “There is no safe option for us to travel now,” they said. Started as Bombay State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) in 1948 and later renamed MSRTC in 1960, today the corporation has about 18,449 buses and employs one lakh people in the state. Around 87 lakh passengers are dependent on this passenger transport system every day.Insufficient compensationWith the Covid pandemic beginning to spread in early 2020, a lockdown was imposed, stranding workers from several states in Maharashtra. Soon, the state government began rescue efforts and MSRTC employees were at the heart of these efforts. The MSRTC had successfully sent back 1,31,000 sugar cutting labourers stranded in sugar factories to their hometowns. It had also sent around 73 MSRTC buses to bring back 1,780 students from Kota, Rajasthan.Meanwhile, Mumbai’s local train system was closed, creating a strain on Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s BEST buses. To ease the burden, the Maharashtra government ordered MSRTC staff to provide services in Mumbai. However, around 250 employees died due to Covid while on duty. Only six of them received compensation. Dissatisfied MSRTC workers launched an agitation and vowed to persevere till their demands were met. Issues such as low wages, no guarantee of safety, and lack of basic amenities while working had steadily created resentment towards MSRTC among the workers. 101Reporters visited Sinnar Bus Depot to cover a protest where conductors and drivers expressed concern about the future of their jobs at MSRTC.Protest underway at Sinnar bus depot (above) in Nashik district (Picture credit - Vaibhav Sanap)A fight for self-respectSharad Narawade is a bus conductor by profession and is the President of the MSRTC Workers Union at Sinnar Depot. He insinuated, "Our pay rise is very low compared to inflation. The government has repeatedly ignored the demands of our employees. Due to the rising inflation and low salaries, 38 employees have committed suicide so far due to debt. The families of the six have been paid and the families of the rest are still deprived of this compensation. This is the fight for our self-respect and we will not back off by mere pay raise. We want a complete merger of MSRTC into the state government. Once we are merged we will never have to agitate. We will be treated like government employees and our pay will increase automatically."He further added “It is dangerous to drive any of these vehicles. The MSRTC employees who run the Corporation are not provided with facilities like Mediclaim. Worse, the employees are also deprived of basic facilities like water, food and toilets when they are doing their duties.” Navnath Darade (56) has been working as a driver for the last 33 years. He will retire in the next two to four years. Speaking about his long service experience of 33 years, Darade adds, "Our bus accident rate is much lower than other passenger transport services. In my 33 years of service, I have not had a single accident but the government has never heeded our demands and it failed to recognize our efficiency and contribution to the corporation and service to the state. Today I am two to four years away from retirement and my salary is around Rs 38,000. When the bus leaves the village in the morning, we have to go to the toilet after coming to the city, which raises many health-related issues. Although MSRTC is one of the most successful corporations of the Maharashtra government, it is against our rights that Maharashtra government is not merging our corporation with them."Navnath Darade (56) has been working as a driver in the MSRTC for the last 33 years (Picture credit - Vaibhav Sanap)After a month-long agitation, the government has begun taking steps to end it. Transport Minister Anil Parab has taken some concrete steps regarding pay. The basic pay of new employees has been increased by an average of Rs 5,000. The basic pay of employees who have served for ten years has been increased by an average of Rs 4,000. This will further increase their basic pay by Rs 5,760 along with other allowances. The basic pay of employees who have completed 20 years of service has been increased by an average of Rs 2,500. As a result, their salary has been increased by Rs 3,600 along with other allowances. The basic pay of employees who have served for 30 years or more has been increased by an average of Rs 2,500. Therefore, they will get an increase of Rs 3,600 along with other allowances.The government of Maharashtra have taken several steps to persuade the striking employees with higher pay and threatening them with suspension, dismissal and imposing stringent laws like the Essential Service Act (MESMA) but the state has failed to deter them as MSRTC employees have taken a firm stance that the agitation will not be withdrawn until the merger is undertaken.

The cost of Covid and the digital divide: Why Adivasi students are not returning to school

Even as schools across Maharashtra have reopened after extended lockdowns, students from tribal communities struggle to cope with the digitalisation of education and find it more challenging to return to the classroom. Nashik: Before the lockdown, sixty tribal students studied at the Zilla Parishad Primary School, Nimgaon Sinnar, Nashik. The school has classes from the first to the seventh grade, with these sixty children divided among the seven classes. However, when schools in Maharashtra reopened on October 5 this year after being closed for more than 18 months, none of these students returned. Online schooling out of reachWhen the pandemic started in 2020, most educational institutions were forced to close down and adapt to the online platform. The digital transformation of education on a hitherto unprecedented scale has proven to be a severe setback for students from economically weaker sections of society. Physical schools were already an uphill battle for many of these children considering the lack of family support and financial assistance. Online schooling has only widened this chasm and made education even more inaccessible for these students in the post-pandemic era.Digital education makes mobile phones, computers/laptops and a reliable internet connection necessary tools of accessibility. Even though it seemed an insurmountable task for the tribal community to afford mobile phones and dependable network connections, some still managed to source these to continue their children's education. Another challenge tribal students faced was the need for guidance from an educated and experienced adult to help them with online classes, which in most cases, was absent.Vijay Bodhle, a teacher at the primary school, told 101Reporters, "Even before the lockdown, some tribal students did not come to school regularly, but some of my colleagues and I kept trying to bring them back to school. Usually, we found them at home or in temples, but now it is difficult to find them; many are between the ages of six to fifteen and work in the fields as agricultural labourers. The students we do find either run away or hide from us and have no intention of returning to school."The lockdown and the subsequent digitisation of learning have had many far-reaching consequences that have jeopardised the academic future of children from low-income groups. A visit to the tribal areas revealed a grim situation.A few girls go for a swim in their school uniforms (Picture credit - Vaibhav Sanap)Education of the girl child suffers setback Girls were already at an unfair disadvantage due to the unaffordability of school for most tribal families compounded by the belief that education was superfluous to girls and, therefore, unnecessary. COVID-19, the successive lockdowns and the digital divide have stacked the odds against girl children and pushed education out of their reach.Diya* was a student in grade 3 of her school. However, she has not returned to class since the school reopened. When initially questioned as to why she had not gone back, she replied, "We didn't know that school had started." Diya's mother, Lakshmi Gangurde, told 101Reporters, "Diya was not feeling well, so she did not go to school. Also, now that the soybean season has started, our income is steady. Once the harvesting is over, we will send her to school again." Though, only time would tell if she kept her promise. Addictions and gambling lure out-of-school studentsBefore the COVID-19 pandemic, students remained in school from 10 am to 5 pm under the supervision of teachers. However, a prolonged lockdown period meant that the students were left unsupervised and unrestricted, resulting in children as young as eight and ten becoming addicted to alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs.Boredom had also set in, and the lack of entertainment facilities in tribal areas caused students (both boys and girls) to engage in gambling as a way of wiling away time. Soon it had escalated into serious gambling bouts with older people for money. Many students now work as labourers to fund their alcohol and gambling habits, while the adults enjoy an unwarranted advantage in hoodwinking vulnerable children of their money.Young girls pass time by playing cards with adults in the community (Picture credit - Vaibhav Sanap) Students tied down as bonded labourThe lockdown had also forced many tribal families to migrate, looking for better economic prospects. However, several families have been working on a contract basis with wealthy farmers all year round, making it difficult for them to migrate before completing the contract. Some of the students themselves are working for these farmers as bonded labourers for very little money. Ashish* is one of them. Had he continued school throughout the lockdown, he would be in the 8th grade today. However, Ashish chose to work as a shepherd and a labourer throughout the year to supplement his family's meagre income. He dropped out of school in exchange for two meals a day, a small place to stay in the barn and Rs 15,000 at the end of the year.Samadhan Kalse, Head of School Management Committee, believes that farmers are also responsible for the situation. "Farm labour needs are fulfilled through tribal students who work harder than older men. So farmers force them to work instead of encouraging them to go to school. If we were to visit tribal areas after 6 pm, many farmers would noticeably be scouring the locality, making arrangements for the next day's labour, knowing that addicted youth are looking for money to spend on liquor in the evenings. Many farmers pay half the wage first to confirm the labourers' service for the next day and promise to pay the remaining amount after the work is done. However, they do not do as they say and instead pay them whenever they require labour again. It becomes impossible for these students to get out of this vicious cycle."  Diya and Ashish represent a long list of students who have been deprived of an opportunity to continue their educational journey due to a digital divide that blocks their access to learning resources and renders them helpless. Without any substantial government assistance and a lack of strong familial support, these children are in danger of falling through the cracks, making them silent casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.