"It took me seven hours by train to reach here. I have
been coming to the venue for two days, and I'm hoping today I get the slot for
the screening test," Gaurav Seni, a 27-year-old high school graduate, told
Nikkei Asia as he waited on a university lawn with a crowd of other men.
Seni said he has a debt of 500,000 rupees (US$6,000).
"If I get this job, I can take my family out of the debt ... within a few
months," he said, pointing to the promised monthly salary of 137,000
rupees.
So far, Haryana and the state of Uttar Pradesh have
advertised for skilled workers to interview and test for jobs in Israel, which
has turned to countries such as India and Sri Lanka to fill labor
shortages in sectors like construction and farming. An initial 10,000 workers
were due to be hired from India.
The
program is not without controversy, over both risks and ethics. Critics have
slammed India's arrangement with Israel for potentially endangering workers by
sending them to a conflict zone, and for indirectly helping Israel strip jobs
from Palestinian workers.
Roughly 90,000 Palestinians were reportedly employed in
Israel's construction sector. But due to the conflict, which started when Hamas
militants stormed into Israeli communities and killed around 1,200 people in
October, Israel has canceled the work permits of thousands of such workers.
Meanwhile, over 25,000 people have been killed in Israel's campaign against
Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to authorities in the besieged Palestinian
enclave.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a group of
industry organizations, denounced the recruitment and urged Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to terminate the
arrangement with Israel.
"CITU
appeals to the Indian workers not to fall prey to the abetment of the BJP-led
government ... and states for going for jobs in Israel, which is itself a
conflict-torn area and its [government] is rendering thousands of Palestinians
working in Israel jobless while carrying out genocidal attacks on
Palestine," Tapan Sen, CITU's general secretary, said in a statement.
Israel has strongly denied accusations of genocide leveled
at the United Nations, insisting its war is in self-defense.
The Indian government, which has forged closer ties with
Israel in recent years, has defended the hiring drive.
"We have mobility partnerships with several countries
across the world. And we now have an agreement with Israel as well. The
agreement started long before the conflict erupted," External Affairs
Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters last Thursday. Stressing
there is no basis for concern, he added, "Let me tell you that labor laws
in Israel are robust and strict and provide protection of labor rights and
migrant rights."
Before the war, such protections had been called into
question by rights groups, highlighting alleged cases of mistreatment of Thai
workers -- another key source of labor for the small country of about 9
million people.
But Jaiswal stressed, "We are conscious of our
responsibility to provide safety and security to our people who are abroad.
When the conflict erupted in Israel, we launched Operation Ajay for all those
people who wanted to come back," referring to repatriation flights.
"Having said that, we remain committed to safe migration of our
people."
For workers like Seni, the decision is simple.
"Risks
are everywhere, and we need to take them. I can't just sit at home and starve
my family," he said. He was also confident that he would not end up
working near Israel's tense borders. "Why would the government send us to
some unsafe place?"
The enthusiasm for the jobs also highlights India's own
challenge of finding enough work for its population -- now the world's largest
at over 1.4 billion. The overall unemployment rate stood at 8.65% in December
2023, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. For the age 20-24
bracket, it was reported as high as 44%.
Kamal Kishore, a 24-year-old arts graduate from Uttar
Pradesh, said he had faced multiple rejections for jobs in India. That, he
said, was why he had been "shivering in the cold since 5 am." to try
out for carpentry work in Israel.
"We have huge unemployment rates in India. Even though
I have the required qualifications, I faced challenges in securing a job,"
he said. "I belong to a poor family, and earning to support my family is
important despite the potential risks."
His
reasoning was similar to Seni's. "What do we have to do with the
war?" he said. "Death can come anywhere, but at least I can earn
better in Israel and support my family."
Courtesy: Nikkei
Asia
