At Haryana job fair for Israel, many from other states say turned back

Gurgaon: At the job fair in Rohtak last week, Ramesh – a carpenter from UP’s Ballia – was among the hundreds of youths who had turned up for employment in Israel. He was convinced this was his best crack at a better life. But he could not get past the gates of Maharshi Dayanand University on Thursday, the second day of the fair. He had a decade of experience of working in Dubai and an assurance from an “agent” that he would land the Israel job even if he did not pass the test required for it. Working in a country at war was no deterrent. A monthly salary of Rs 1.4 lakh – 6,100 Israeli shekels – was more than what he could have earned in his village in a half a year. So, he sold his mother’s jewellery for Rs 2 lakh and gave Rs 80,000 to the agent. The rest he kept to buy an air ticket.But at the fair, those dreams came crashing quickly. Ramesh was told that only those with a ‘Parivar Pehchan Patra’, the family ID issued by the Haryana government, would be eligible for the test. Ramesh was moved to tears.“I wanted this job badly. Tell me, how can a carpenter working in a UP village sustain a family of nine members,” Ramesh told TOI, adding he was staying put in Rohtak. Like Ramesh, several job seekers had come to Rohtak from other states, like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and even Bihar, only to be told to return home when they could not produce a PPP. Most of them told TOI they had paid anything between Rs 20,000-1 lakh to agents and touts who had informed them about the vacancies and “assured” them of placement. Around 1,000 youths, according to a source at the fair, were turned away.Employment opportunities have opened up for Indians in Israel because it cancelled the work permits of Palestinians after the Hamas attack last year. The advertisement for the jobs – mostly in the sectors of nursing and construction – was issued last November by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which urged state governments to hold camps in their districts.Haryana and UP offered to send 10,000 youths each to the country. While a six-day drive to screen aspirants by an Israeli delegation started in Rohtak on Wednesday, similar camps have been planned in several districts of UP from January 23.Outside the university, Ramesh was accompanied by a mason from Rajasthan’s Sikar, who claimed to have paid Rs 1 lakh to an agent. “I am not alone. Some 40 people in my village have paid the same agent for a job in Israel. And now, we are not even being allowed inside. What sort of discrimination is this? We are all Indians,” he said. With temperatures plummeting to below 5 degrees at night, these aspirants have been sleeping on pavements or parks because most of them cannot afford a hotel or a lodge. An official from the university said that youths from other states were allowed on Wednesday, the first day of the job camp. “Everyone was allowed on the first day because there were only a few candidates. But from Thursday, when youths started to throng the job fair, they were asked to produce family IDs. Many who were not from the state were stopped outside the gates,” the official said. An official from NSDC said they had not specified the need for a family ID in their job advertisement. “No, there was no such condition. The posts were open to all,” the official added. Sources in the corporation said members of the Israeli delegation had raised concerns after coming to know that around 1,000 youths were barred from the job fair and sought the Centre’s intervention.A few aspirants protested outside the university campus on Saturday.