After Gujarat, now a recruitment drive at Mumbai Airport set off a stampede-like situation. As many as 25,000 job applicants arrived for the 600 vacancies opened by Air India, with the airline's staff struggling to manage the massive crowd.
Visuals from the scene showed applicants bumping into each other and pushing through to reach the form counter. Reportedly, applicants, without any food or water, had to wait for hours, leading to many of them feeling sick.
Of the vacancies that were opened, one of the positions was that of Airport loaders, who load and unload luggage into the aircraft and at the airport. They are also tasked with operating the ramp tractors and baggage belts, NDTV reported.
At least five loaders are needed to handle one aircraft's luggage, cargo and food supplies.
The salary range of an airport loader falls between Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000, with most of these employees making around Rs 30,000 after earning overtime allowances.
Though the educational qualification requirement is basic, the applicant must be physically fit and strong.
"I have applied for the job of handyman. They are offering a salary of Rs 22,500," said Prathameshwar, who travelled over 400 km to attend the interview. A second year BBA student, Prathameshwar said that what could he do other than quitting his studies if he gets the job.
He asked, when there's such "unemployment, what can we do?" urging the government to create more job opportunities.
Another man with a BA degree was at the interview site even though he didn't know much about a handyman's work, citing that he "needs the job", the report said.
Another job candidate with an MCom degree applied for the post, even though the basic qualification needed is basic. He was there because he had heard the pay was good and the man was also preparing for government job exams.
Notably, just days before, a similar incident in Ankleshwar in Gujarat's Bharuch district had sparked a row. Job seekers were seen jostling each other around as a massive queue formed outside the walk-in interview venue.
For merely 10 openings at a private firm, near about 1,800 applicants had turned up leading to the chaotic stampede-like situation.
The crowd was so big that applicants were seen standing and leaning over the ramp's railing, which ultimately collapsed under the overload. Fortunately, none of the persons who fell from the low-heighted railing suffered any major injuries.
The Congress saw the chance and had slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that it's Gujarat model had been "exposed". The grand old party said that the ruling BJP was using imposing this unemployment model across the nation.
Similarly, the Mumbai airport incident has also, Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad raised the unemployment issue, hitting out at the BJP.
"It is said about Mumbai that no one goes empty handed from here, everyone gets something or the other to survive here. But look at the condition of unemployment in the financial capital of Mumbai," she said in her post on X.
She accused the central government of "gifting" industries coming to Maharashtra to Gujarat instead.
"What has the BJP government at the centre and the Khoke government in the state done to the economic capital and the country? The youth need employment, not empty promises and false statistics," she said, asking that "When will this government be serious about the future of the youth of the country?"
Air India is yet to respond to the incident.
