CHENNAI: Tamil Mozhi was in high spirits. She said she had been waiting for this day eagerly. She was among the 480 candidates who turned-up at the Job Mela organised by World Vision India, along with the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and Equitas Pvt Ltd, at Thoraipakkam on Sunday.
“My husband is a driver and I have two small children who are about to start school.” she said. “The family income is just not enough to get by, so I have come here determined to get a job. It doesn’t matter what job I get, I just want employment,”added the 29-year-old who is differently abled.
Almost 34 companies including ICICI, KFC, TVS group and Eureka Forbes, and organisations showed up at the Hope Foundation Nursery and Primary school at Kannagi Nagar, looking to recruit. The day-long job mela saw recruiters and volunteers scouring for candidates of lower-educational backgrounds among those between the ages of 19 to 45 who attended. As many as 356 of them got job opportunities within the same day.
“We want to give opportunity to someone who really needs it. In fact, we even turned down a candidate who had an MBA degree on the grounds of being overqualified. My company’s target is employing 10th and 12th pass candidates,” said Saravanan, a recruiter for the Apollo group, as the queue behind him grew visibly. The jobs offered varied from back office and sales, to skill-based jobs such as mechanics, assistant, pharmacists, etc. The salaries ranged from `6,000 to `12,000, depending on their educational qualification and prior work-experience.
“They migrated here from other evicted pockets of the city and it was our duty to give them a livelihood. This event has given us a platform to do that,” said Palaniswamy, managing director, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board.
The event was organised following the success of a similar job-mela conducted by World Vision for slum-dwellers in North Chennai. “More young women are pro-actively seeking jobs to avoid the drudgery of sitting at home. This is a welcome sight. Next time, we would like to bring more recruiters from the nearby localities for their convenience,” said Justish Ananadan of World Vision India.