For them, lure of jobs hard to resist

Drawn from remote places in Odisha by the lure of jobs and regular pay in God’s Own Country, some of the 144 youngsters who were detained by the Parassala railway police while on their way to the city on a train for employment in a garment firm are firm they want to work rather than head back home to a life of deprivation.

“What was the point of coming this far otherwise,” asks Shubasree Behera of Ganjam district who along with other women in the group has been temporarily housed at Sree Chitra Home here.

Shubhasree first boarded a train to Chennai, and from there to Thiruvananthapuram to work as sewing machine operator in a garment firm at the Kinfra Apparel Park at Kazhakuttam. Mita Nial of Rayagada, Bhagyawanti Chalon of Malkangiri, and the rest too had landed for the same job after undergoing a 34-day placement-linked training programme in garment checking, reportedly under the Integrated Skill Development Programme of the Union government, at eight centres in Odisha.

Desperate financial straits were what led the women to board the train to Kerala. “There’s no work in our village,” says Bhagyawanti.

Ganjam, Kalahandi, Malkangiri… the women belong to various places, all drawn by the promise of regular income.

The women say the minimum qualification for their training was Class 5 pass. Besides learning to tailor clothes, they were given soft skill training in English and Hindu, and after their last assessment asked to expect placement calls. As soon as the calls came, they reported at the respective training centres, and soon were on the train here, along with Rabi Narayan Mishra and Binod Aditya, two people from their placement cell.

Binod Aditya, they say, got off with another group of youngsters at Tirupur, and the rest came here.

The women, some of whom have not informed their families, fret over how long they would have to stay at the home. “If we call them, they will keep worrying.”

The women who deny being mistreated are not worried about being taken for a ride.

“We know people from previous batches at our centres, and they have landed jobs in Channi, Tirupur and Bengaluru with regular pay,” they say. Here, they were promised a gross pay of Rs.8,500, including Provident Fund and ESI.

Asked about the presence of minor girls in their group, the women say they are all adults, but had to report the age printed on their Aadhaar cards.

As they pass time watching television in a hall at the home, all they hope for is to get on with what they came here for – work.

144 youngsters detained by the Parassala railway police want to work rather than go back home.