Service With a Smile From Northeast

By Rrishi Raote

New Delhi Jan 22 : Why do people from the northeastern states of India make effective employees in the services sector?

He’s been studying all night for the IAS exam, and is just waking up. Yet Romen Singh Kshetrimayum, 26, responds lucidly and in reasonably complete sentences via SMS, with scarcely a pause for thought: “Its [sic] the culture that we have been brought up with, i.e., helpful nature which comes from community based outlook in life. Also do the best in whatever stations you are placed in life.”

The question put to him was this: “Why do people from the north-eastern states do so well in the services sector, especially in customer-facing positions?”

That they are welcomed by employers can hardly be in doubt. In the richest cities, particularly Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, large and small retail outlets and eateries are often staffed partly or largely by young workers from the north-east of India.

Like other migrant groups in urban India, north-easterners face discrimination and, sometimes, violence. In Delhi, two or three times a month an incident of rape, assault or intimidation against a north-eastern migrant is recorded by the North East Support Centre & Helpline. These attacks often take place in or near the localities where young migrants settle, such as densely-packed Moti Bagh and Munirka. The most widely reported recent incident was the kidnap and gang-rape of a 30-year-old Mizo employee of a Gurgaon BPO on the night of November 23-24, 2010. She was seized near Moti Bagh.

Activist Madhu Chandra runs the support centre. In an essay titled “North East Migration and Challenges in Mega Cities” on the site, he lists the factors that drive north-easterners into “mainland” urban centres. Among the “push” factors are unrest in their home states (including frequent strikes and poor infrastructure), the lack of study and work opportunities, and intercommunity conflict. Among the “pull” factors the chief one is globalisation.

Despite the unrest, Chandra writes, “people did not desire to leave their home states until globalisation reached the mega cities of India. Only then the young generation of North East India... started migrating in pursuit of employment, mostly in BPO-related companies like call centres, shopping malls, and hospitality industries... A larger number of people began migrating after 2000 and increased [sic] in last two or three years mainly in pursuit of higher studies and a hunt for employment opportunities.”

Asked for numbers, Chandra says, “Nobody has an accurate number but [his organisation] did a count [in Delhi] of people coming from all eight states five years ago. We had 85,000 to 1 lakh. In the last five years it has doubled. Now we have close to 2 lakh. This includes students, government employees and the unorganised private sector.” The growth is all in private sector workers, who are 35-40 per cent of the total.

Among the smaller states, Manipur sends out the most migrants. “Manipur is the worst-affected,” says Chandra, who is from Manipur. “For educated youngsters there’s no job opportunity there.” Assam’s size, however, means that in absolute terms it sends out more people.

Many jobs for migrants don’t involve skilled labour. Shyamolee Deb, 28, from Mizoram, came to Mumbai to work after graduating from college in Pune. In the morning she babysits two children, and in the evening she mans the cash counter and waits tables at a south Mumbai hookah café. Both pay well. She earns about Rs 9,000 from babysitting and Rs 10,000 plus tips at the café. “A monthly income of Rs 20,000 is enough for me to sustain in Mumbai,” she says, “and I recently enrolled in a part-time course in hotel management and tourism.”

Why hotel management? “Because in big hotels and resorts we are welcomed with no unpleasant questions being raised.” And it is a beaten path: friends and cousins of hers work as airline stewards or customer staff, and a few at five-star hotels. “My seven-month experience in the café also counts,” says Deb, “so I am eager to complete the course and finally have a good job.”

Deb’s cheerful willingness may be partly owed to her background. Ronald Laloo, 51, who is from Meghalaya but whose work history runs from accounting in Pune to piano teaching in Delhi, explains that “There’s no man’s job or woman’s job in our culture.” The point, he says, echoing Kshetrimayum, is to do your best and work honestly. Laloo attributes this partly to their strong Christian faith, which doesn’t stigmatise any honest labour.

But the north-easterner’s chief asset, Laloo thinks, is language. It is another result of Christian missionary work in the region. “All schools are mainly English-medium, and we have good English teachers.” He adds that most schools are co-educational, so boys and girls learn early to work and talk with each other. “We are friendly, sociable people,” he says. “Employers realise it’s a positive point. You can’t have people who aren’t friendly meeting customers.”

Sangita Lala, vice-president of TeamLease Services, a Bangalore-based big staffing company, concurs on language. In Bangalore, north-easterners’ English skills are valued. Voice BPOs and the retail industry, she says, are especially welcoming.

Kshetrimayum, who is from Manipur, is not so sanguine. “The language barrier is there,” he says, “because there can be a heavy, thick accent.” (His is minimal.) Sociability, he says, is mainly because of strong tribal feeling. That can benefit employers, too: “After the first few days, we tend to open up and go the extra mile to make the company profitable.”

Kshetrimayum has thrown himself into his IAS effort because his faith forbids him to work on the Sabbath. Few employers were willing to promise him every Saturday off. Government service is still the usual recourse of the educated but not well-off in the North-east.

Another advantage for employers is that north-easterners work hard at any level. At the entry level, a floor sales job with a large company may pay Rs 6,000-7,000 a month, plus incentives. For the price of a driver, then, an employer can hire an English-speaking, high school- or college-educated, honest and presentable youngster.

Despite that, in-house numbers are impossible to come by. Companies don’t categorise employees by origin. Indeed, Kabir Lumba, the Bangalore-based MD of Lifestyle International, a leading retail chain, says, “We have people from all over. We don’t actively pursue people from the North-east. There is no quota or percentage.” At the front end, Lumba says, all employees have to learn about the products they will be selling. “English skills are good but not a necessity,” he says. “Having good content and product knowledge is important.” This may be true, but leads one to wonder how that knowledge is communicated, say, to a south Indian customer in a Mumbai mall.

Lumba also observes, “Anybody who comes out and works in a foreign land, or not in his native place, is there for a cause: to grow his own career and prospects.” That is, the north-easterner in the metro cities partakes of the universal immigrant hunger and determination to succeed. This is, of course, an advantage for the employer.

Rituraj Gogoi, 25, grew up in Guwahati, Assam, earned an MBA (“in retail”) in Delhi, and now enjoys the flow of people through the Tata Croma electronics outlet at the Delhi airport — which he manages. The services industry, he says with insight, “requires people who are more docile kinds. Any day a customer would love a person who speaks softly, and not one step up or one step down.” It is how he himself speaks.

That soft-spokenness has paid off in the Gurgaon office of a global advertising agency, according to a former employee, a Delhiite. “Ninety per cent of the people in ‘client servicing’ are Assamese or Bengali,” she says. “They get it from both sides, from the clients and from the strategy side. But they are so soft-spoken, use such sweet language, are so good at defusing tension, that they somehow keep both sides happy.”

The tricky question of physical appearance remains. “My looks draw enough attention at work or when I go shopping and the fact that I cannot speak fluent Hindi means everyone assumes I’m Nepali or Tibetan,” says Shyamolee Deb unhappily.

Ngai Muan Sang from Churachandpur, Manipur, left home three years ago after completing school. She has worked for Subway and Pizza Hut in Bangalore and now manages a luxury spa brand store in UB City Mall, Mumbai. “I have come to accept the fact,” she says, “that while a set of people will always treat us as foreigners, there is an educated generation that understands our potential and is willing to bet on our skills.” Her present paycheck is a solid Rs 37,000.

Kshetrimayum answered the question posed via SMS so readily because the reasons for the growing numbers and success of north-easterners in the services sector are well-known, not least by north-easterners themselves. The unfortunate thing is, as more than one migrant says, that until they leave home they feel completely Indian. It’s only when they reach “mainland” India that they are reminded of their difference — and the economic value it confers upon them.

Some names changed for anonymity. Priyanka Joshi in Mumbai and Praveen Bose in Bangalore contributed to this article

Assam Introduces Big Dam Lessons in Schools

DAULAT RAHMAN

The Lower Subansiri dam site.

Guwahati, Jan 22 : Dispur has decided to take the big dam issue to classrooms. This comes at a time when construction of the dams to generate electricity is creating controversy, debate and agitation in the region.

An Assam government official told The Telegraph that the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) and Assam Higher Secondary Education Council would soon be asked to include the issue of big dams as a subject in school s and colleges to educate the future generation about such projects.

The official said the board and the council would take the final decision on whether the study on big dams should be a separate subject or a chapter under the existing subjects.

He, however, said the proposed study would be extensive, both at the school and college levels, with special reference to the Northeast.

“The government has felt the urgent need to educate students about big dams to create a scientific temperament and avoid unnecessary controversies. Even though there has been serious discussions on the adverse downstream impacts of the lower Subansiri hydroelectric project, the fact remains that the state cannot ignore such projects. It would be capable of generating 2,000 MW of electricity. Thus, we need to have comprehensive knowledge about various aspects and socio-economic impacts of big dams,” he said.

The issue of construction of big dams has given rise to strong protests.

It went to an extent where the Union minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh, last year wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office on the issue of mega dams. The letter accepted several facts like the concerns of downstream people.

The winter session of the Assam Assembly witnessed noisy scenes over the issue and a daylong debate was held.

“Students will have to study about big dams in general and its background with reference to various countries in the world. However, there will be a special reference to the significance of big dams in the the Northeast in terms of seismological, topographical, ecological, social and economic features of the region,” the official said.

“Considering the region’s vulnerability to earthquakes, the subject will also focus on whether big dams, if constructed, can withstand earthquakes of high magnitude. Technical aspects of big dam construction will also be covered,” he said.

SEBA secretary L.N. Sarma welcomed the government’s initiative.

He said the board would do the needful once it received formal instructions from the education department.

The board, Sarma added, was mulling the issue in view of the debates and agitation.

“However, the board alone cannot do the job. The big dam is an issue where various departments are involved. The agriculture, irrigation, water resources and power departments will have to help the board in preparing the subject on big dams. The big dam will be a serious environment issue and the future (generations) must be taught the subject scientifically,” Sarma said.

Principal of B. Borooah College Dinesh Baishya said students of environmental science in college definitely needed to have a more comprehensive chapter on big dams.

He, however, also said there was a need to study about big dams in detail with special reference to the region since the issue would continue to create controversy and fan people’s curiosity in the days to come.

via The Telegraph

Begin Healing Process in Northeast India, Says U.N. Special Rapporteur

Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, addresses a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, on Friday advised India to keep politics with Pakistan on the Jammu and Kashmir situation aside and instead take up issues “about the people” and begin the “healing process” as they “have been suffering for many years.”

She felt that the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the Public Safety Act, which were arbitrarily applied at the national and State levels in J&K and in the Northeast India, should be repealed and application of other security laws which “adversely affect the work and safety of human rights defenders should be reviewed.” Acknowledging the security challenges faced by the country, Ms. Sekaggya said that at the same time “people and their basic rights are also important.”

Quoting reports about the rampant violation of human rights in J&K, Ms. Sekaggaya referred to an instance where a prisoner in the Valley had been kept “naked” in solitary confinement for seven years.

The U.N Rapporteur, a lawyer and the former Judge of the High Court in Uganda, toured Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Srinagar, and Delhi for 10-days, though she had asked the Indian government permission for two-three week tour.

In her preliminary report, released to the journalists here, she said: “I am troubled by the branding and stigmatisation of rights defenders, who are labelled as Maoists, terrorists, militants, insurgents, anti-nationalists, members of the underground.” Defenders on the ground, including journalists, who report on violations by the State and non-State actors in areas affected by insurgency were targeted by both sides, she said.

Freedom of movement of defenders are restricted under these security laws; for instance, applications of passport or renewal have been denied, and access for defenders to victims in some areas.

According to sources, this was the first time a Special Rapporteur has been given permission by the Centre to study the human rights situation in the country, though the U.N. office had been seeking permission since 2001.

On the arrest and conviction of rights activist Binayak Sen, for taking up the issues of Maoists, she said the U.N. body had been monitoring the progress of the proceedings. She said Mr. Sen's wife had met her during the visit and explained the her husband's plight.

Ms. Sekaggya observed that there were deficiencies in the administrative and judicial setup that needed to be addressed. The human rights Commissions in the country must “do more” and “increase the visibility” in condemning rights abuse, while the judiciary must use its suo motu powers to take cognisance of abuses. India faced numerous security challenges, but these should not constrain the “space of civil society,” she said.

Kaziranga National Park Attracts Tourists

Assam's Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary is seeing a huge influx of tourists, domestic as well as foreign, suggesting that the militant threat in the area is on the wane.

It is listed as one of the most visited sanctuaries and national parks of Asia.

Home to some rare species like one-horn rhinoceros and wild elephants, the park attracts a large number of tourists from all over the world.

In 2009 more than 13.5 lakh people visited the park. The tourist arrivals increased to 17 lakh in 2010.

Baljit Kaur, a tourist, said: "I really liked the national park. It is extremely beautiful here."

Joykumar Singh, another tourist, said: "It is a lifetime experience for me. The forest is really beautiful and I got to see many rhinos, elephants and other animals. It was a great experience."

L. Bhadana, another tourist, said: "We have never seen so many animals at one place. I feel great after coming here. The park is really beautiful."

The newly started evening safari, other than the traditional jeep safari and the boat cruise along Bramhaputra, has attracted more tourists.

Trained guides and elephants escort the visitors during their safari and every measure for the visitor's security is taken care of.

The park is open from 7 am to 10 pm in the night. The jeep association runs more than 140 cars for the tourists, which sometimes is not enough, clearly reflecting the popularity of destination among the people.

The park generates employment for hundreds of youth in the region.

Punen Gogoi, the president of the Jeep Safari Association, said: This year many tourists are coming to the park and this is generating a lot of business."

Diganta Borah, a jeep driver, said: "We earn our living through this and we try to satisfy our visitors as much as possible. And, with every passing day, the numbers of tourists is increasing."

Hari Prasanna, an entrepreneur, said: "This season has been good, as insurgency has gone down. And this will boost business not only in Assam but also the entire northeast. It will help business to a large extent."

Utpal Das, a tourist, said: "It is very calm here and there is no problem. Everyone can come here and the security systems are good here."

This oldest park of Assam is spread over an area of 430 square kilometers, along the River Brahmaputra in the North and the Karbi Anglong hills in the South. It was declared a national park in 1974 and a world heritage site in 1985.

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Deadlock Over Peace Talks With Hmar Rebels

Aizawl, Jan 21 : The Mizoram government’s efforts to hold peace parleys with the Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) to end the 10-year-old insurgency in the Hmar-dominated areas of the state have come to a naught so far.

Representatives of the two sides were scheduled to meet in Aizawl on January 14 but the HPC (D) delegates did not show up, giving rise to uncertainty regarding the talks. The talks has been proposed during the first meeting between them in Aizawl on November 11 last year.

According to the travel schedule of the HPC (D), the delegation was supposed to arrive first at Hmarkhawlien, a hub of Hmar tribals in Cachar district’s eastern enclave on its borders with Manipur, and then travel in a convoy of cars under police escort to Aizawl.

A senior home department official in Aizawl today said the government had sent fresh communication a couple of days ago to the HPC (D) headquarters in Tipaimukh of Manipur, requesting them to fix a date for the talks. However, there has been no response from the militant leaders yet.

It could not be ascertained whether the peace parleys had figured in the talks between senior officials of the Union home ministry and Mizoram home secretary Lalmalsawma, who is now camping in New Delhi for repatriation of Bru refugees from their sanctuaries in North Tripura.

A senior commander of HPC (D), Lalhmingthanga, told this correspondent over phone from somewhere in Manipur last night that the Hmar delegation did not arrive for the talks as the HPC (D) was “very much” piqued at the manner in which the Mizoram government had invited them for the dialogue.

Mizoram Govt Supporting Grape-Wine Industry

New Delhi, Jan 21 : Looking at the increasing demand of alcohol industry in India, Department of Horticulture, Government of Mizoram is now trying to position them in this upcoming booming sector.

The Mizoram government is offering technical support & training to the local grape producers boosting the cultivation of grapes in Mizoram.

Last year, the local grape producers and wine industry saw increase in demand for the grape wine that is gaining popularity for its superior quality and taste.

The potential for development of horticulture sector in Mizoram is enormous and diverse.

“By participating in events like International Horticulture Expo, the Government of Mizoram is now trying to promote their qualitative alcoholic beverages across India,” said, Miss Margaret Vanlal Zami, a representative, Department of Horticulture, Government of Mizoram.