Lost opportunities

An effort to train Parsi/Irani youth in various community businesses met with limited success as "the responses from prospective industrialists/employers did not make happy reading. Few boys and girls turned up at these establishments to which they were sent. It appeared as if these young people did not realize the opportunities given to them,” notes a 52-page Research Project Report on The Training and Employment Opportunities for Parsi-Zoroastrians.

The brainchild of Dr Mehroo Benga­lee, a member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) and sponsored by the all India body, the program saw 44 youths enrolled in 13 different firms for a period of around three months to a year starting October 2008. An equal number of males and females (22 each) ranging in age from 16 to 25 plus participated of whom 16 had completed graduation, 24 their Higher School Certificate (HSC), and three their Secondary School Certificate (SSC). There were no postgraduates.

"The general trend is to pursue ‘soft-padded’ clerical jobs or the glamorous jobs in the fashion industry, modeling, media and so on, where there is ‘more money.’ Blue collared jobs are a definite ‘no no’ to Parsi youth of today. They are unaware of the open-market employment situation now. The earlier the young ones enter appropriate training and get placed thereafter, the earlier they would become economic assets to society,” related the report.

"The report is an eye-opener to our community to think with the times and make their wards worthy of employability. After SSC, the youth need to get into a work-situation for six to eight hours a day, while continuing with HSC. It is very necessary that the work-ethos be developed at a young age,” stressed Bengalee in a letter addressed to different anjumans of India. She regretted that "Parsi youth and their parents… were all eager to pursue degree courses. It is very evident that the youth and our community are unaware of the employment market requirements. At present, only fresh hands SSC/HSC are recruited to be trained for specific jobs in the rapidly changing scientific and technical world of work and required to continue learning on the job.”

"This does not mean that youth should abruptly end their formal learning after passing SSC/HSC. Today, there are plenty of opportunities to ‘learn and earn.’ Distance education, correspondence education, part-time education and so on, are the solutions for all those who enter jobs after passing SSC/HSC but do not wish to continue their formal general higher education immediately. Distance education is now filling the gaps left by formal education by making different subjects/courses available to all those who are interested. Its biggest advantage is that individuals can continue with their job-earning careers and simultaneously enhance their knowledge and skills through the distance mode. Besides, in many cases, it is not too heavy a strain on finances either,” assured the report carrying tables on major open universities in India, distance education colleges in Bombay and private institutions offering distance education facilities.

Twenty-eight firms had agreed to participate in the project. In the field of travel and tourism the firms where training was availed of were Magnum International Travels and Tours, Adventure Tours and Travels, Penguin Holidays Private Limited and Sky Shipping; in the hospitality sector, Indian Hotels Company Limited; in information technology, ASCII Private Limited and On-Lyne; in accountancy and administration, Virat Industries Limited, K. K. Commissariat and Company, Jeena and Company; for technical jobs, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, Buhariwala Relocations; and for graphic designing, N. Jewellery Techniques Private Limited. Offers for training were not availed of at the workshops, factories and industries of Robotic Equipments, N. S. Guzder and Company Limited, Phiroze Karaka and Company, Baliwalla and Homi (Private) Limited and J. N. Marshall Engineering Private Limited; nor in the embroidery/stitching/designing department of Horsharuz Paints and Chemicals. There were no takers either for: pre-primary training at Bai R. F. D. Panday Girls High School and New Activity School; for fitness trainers at Frohar Foundations Frohar Fitness; for construction and civil related work at Buildtech India; secretarial and administrative work at Training in Corporate; or sales at Peekay Wines.