Unemployment Crisis: Graduate Women Participate in Training to be Maids in West Bengal

About 40 undergraduate and postgraduate students attended a training camp organised by Malda Employment Centre to be house helps or maids – in a drastic display of the employment crisis in West Bengal.

A three-day training camp was organized by the centre, which ended on Thursday. During these three days, several young women studying at the post-graduate level came to the Malda Yuva Awas Kendra in Malda to receive the training.

According to sources, only those who had registered were given the training. Educational qualifications to be eligible for the training were to range from class 8th pass to class 10th pass. However, most of the young women present at the training camp were graduates. Health care, child and adult care, first aid, laundry with modern equipment, and house cleaning were the subjects mainly taught in this three-day training centre. At the end of the training, the participants were given certificates, an honorarium of Rs 650, bags, and umbrellas.

A first-year postgraduate student in education from Kaliachak said, "There is no government job in the state. So, I am also training as a maid. Even if I don't do this work, I can apply it at home." Another resident of Arapur in Englishbazar said, "I have graduated. I have come to take training in the hope of employment."

Kaninika Ghosh, state secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), attacked the ruling government in this regard. She told People's Reporter, "If the government has to provide training to maids, there is nothing more unfortunate than this. There was vocational training in the Left Front era. There was a lot of emphasis on such education then.  Everything has stopped during this government."

"Why did the government think that such training can be given just because these are girls? This government will talk about Kanyashree on the one hand and women will be trained as maids on the other hand. How fair it is that? Are girls only involved in this work? Many are involved. Isn't this an attempt to undermine the dignity of women? Actually, there is no work in the state. There is advertising only. The small amount that is being recruited is totally corrupt,” Ghosh further alleged.

CPI (M) Malda district secretary Ambar Mitra told People's Reporter, "These jobs are not for the students. Whether they are secondary school pass or MA pass, they cannot be appointed for such a job. A secondary pass student is eligible for employment in the Group C post of the state government. An eighth-pass student is eligible for employment in the Group D post. Instead of giving them jobs, they are being trained as maids. It's extremely inhuman."

"On the other hand, those who work as maids, who have no choice except this, will be further oppressed and deprived," Mitra added.