Unemployed returnees leave Nagaland seeking greener pastures

Our Correspondent
Kohima, March 21 (EMN): Lack of employment opportunities in Nagaland have forced many returnees to venture outside the state borders in search of greener pastures following the easing of lockdown regulations.

Last year, a swarm of returnees, a majority being youths, reached Nagaland from various places within and outside the country owing to the lockdown, which had paralysed all forms of economic activities thereby, leaving many helpless.

Eastern Mirror reached out to a few returnees to learn about their current situation after the year-long lockdown.

Athrong Sangtam, a 25-year-old cosmetologist, informed that on February 2, she left her home in Nagaland to rejoin her salon back at a resort in Rajasthan.

She shared that she did not want to leave her home but ‘lack of proper job and salary,’ compelled her to go out to earn for her livelihood. “Different families have different problems,” Sangtam added.

Maintaining that jobs are ‘rarely available’ in the state, she shared that even if jobs in some saloons are available, the salary is “too low in my hometown compared to the places outside.”

“I feel good now,” she said on securing her job back following the lockdown.

Sangtam further stated that there were many people who were ‘working comfortably within the vicinity of the places where they stay’.

Whereas in Nagaland, she observed there was ‘a mass of both educated and uneducated unemployed youths due to lack of jobs’.

“We should know how to take care of ourselves,” she added.

Ever since 24-year-old Inatoli Ayemi, returned to Nagaland after serving as a teacher at a school in Chennai, she has been struggling to find a job.

She too shared about the deplorable unemployment situation in Nagaland while talking about the occasional private jobs which come with low income salary ‘commonly INR 4,000 and INR 5,000’.

Concerning the fares of commercial vehicles which are “too high,” Ayemi who lives at 4th Mile in Dimapur, also shared how it was impracticable to ‘survive’ even if she gets a job in and around Dimapur.

“Even though I want to work here, the salary is very low; and the demand of job providers from job seekers is too high,” she said.

Even for jobs with INR 7,000 or INR 10,000 salary, she said that employers usually demand four-five years experience in the concerned field from the job seeker. Ayemi, who had recently sent her resume for a job vacancy at a private school at Burma Camp in Dimapur, shared how she was dismayed when she got to know the post had already been filled without even receiving a call for an interview.

She claimed that she had received a call from the school office assuring them for an interview on receiving their resumes. However, Ayemi asserted that the vacancy was already filled ‘without giving them even an opportunity to face the interview’.

She added that many of her friends who applied for the same post felt dejected when they were denied the same.

She also narrated how the criteria and requirements from candidates seeking for the post of a warden at a hostel or a waitress at a restaurant were set far “too high” by the employers in the state, as she recalled how she was ‘handsomely salaried’ while teaching at the school in Chennai where even food and accommodation were provided free by the school.

Ayemi also shared how during a medical check up, the school had borne all her expenses following an illness, and that transportation was made freely available to cater to the needs of the teachers.

She maintained that in Nagaland, it would not be manageable with such low-income to pay rent dues, commute through commercial vehicles, or grocery shopping besides taking care of oneself.

Another returnee informed that she was already back at the airport where she had been working before the onset of pandemic as there were “no companies” in Nagaland. While another teacher who was earning INR 8,000 in Nagaland before as a private teacher has decided to move to Kolkata for the same profession with INR 20,600 as her monthly salary.