Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging ]
Many Arunachalese hesitate to serve outside the state. After completion of professional degrees like Engineering, Medical, Law, most Arunachalese want to come back and serve within the state. Many Arunachalese hesitate to serve outside the state as they get homesick very easily. Arunachalese miss their rustic, simple villages nestled in lush green forests, miss Arunachali dishes, miss the fresh air/water and desire to come back at the earliest. The hesitancy to serve outside the state is to an extent that there are unemployed associations in the State.
However, there is already a saturation of jobs in the state govt. The recent decision of the state govt to increase retirement age of doctors from 58 to 62 years and other employees from 58 to 60 years will block job openings for the youth. The only way to create more jobs is through creation of more industries and services sector like tourism. But with very poor infrastructure like dilapidated roads, very poor electricity supply, lack of airports and railways, new job openings in industries and tourism is some time away. As per latest figures, the unemployment figure for Arunachal is among the highest in the nation.
There are thousands of job openings in all India services like IAS, IPS, Allied services, Public Sector Undertakings like ONGC, IOC, SAIL, GAIL, BSNL, NHPC etc. There are many more challenging careers like the Indian Armed forces comprising of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Para Military forces like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB etc. There are jobs for engineers, doctors, law graduates and graduates/post graduates for both men and women.
There are many job openings at the world level also. There are job openings in the United Nations organisations like WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO etc. There are job openings in organisations like Merchant Navy, Shipping Corporations, Civil Aviation organisations etc which would allow men and women to serve and travel in various corners of the world. Today very few Arunachalese are working in remote countries of the world.
Our youth need to compete with other mainland candidates and grab jobs in these central services. Employment in central services will allow our youth to see more places, interact with more people from different races, cultures etc. This will broaden our horizons and our customs and traditions would be spread across the country and world. We can learn from other races and tribes and carry back these better ideas back to our nation and state.
If we keep competing within ourselves within our state we will not improve much and enrich our knowledge due to limited scope in the state. We need to compete with mainland Indians and foreigners in different fields to keep improving ourselves and to remain abreast with higher standards of skills, education and research.
Wouldn’t it better to have Arunachalese employed gainfully outside the state in challenging jobs compared to having unemployed associations in the state? (The writer is a retired Group Captain of the Indian Air Force)
