600 Jobs, 25,000 Seekers: Air India Drive Sets Off Stampede Fear In Mumbai

An Air India recruitment drive for airport loaders led to a stampede-like situation at Mumbai airport yesterday. More than 25,000 applicants turned up for a shot at the 600 vacancies, and Air India staff struggled to manage the massive crowd.

Visuals showed the applicants jostling with each other to reach the form counters. Reports said the applicants had to wait for hours without food and water, and many of them started feeling unwell.

Airport loaders are tasked with loading and unloading luggage on aircraft and operating baggage belts and ramp tractors. Each aircraft needs at least five loaders to handle luggage, cargo and food supplies.

The salary of airport loaders ranges between Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, but most make over Rs 30,000 after overtime allowances. Educational criteria for the job are relaxed, but the candidate must be physically strong.

The Mumbai incident comes days after a viral video showed hundreds of jobseekers pushing and shoving each other at a walk-in interview at Ankleshwar in Gujarat’s Bharuch district.

Nearly 1,800 aspirants had turned up for a recruitment drive for just 10 posts in a private firm. Such was the rush that a railing on the ramp leading to the office’s entry collapsed under the weight of the jobseekers. Fortunately, the ramp was not very high, and none of the aspirants who lost their balance after the railing collapsed suffered serious injuries.

Latching on to the video, the Congress said it “exposed the BJP’s Gujarat model” and said the ruling party was imposing this model of unemployment across the country.

Local BJP MP Mansukh Vasava blamed the private firm for the incident. “They were filling up only 10 vacancies and should have specified the criteria properly instead of holding an open interview. At some level, the incident occurred because of the company. We are worried about it and steps are being taken to ensure such incidents don’t happen again.”

The Mumbai airport video, too, has prompted Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad to raise the unemployment issue and target the BJP.

The Mumbai North Central MP said that the unemployment situation has become so bad in the past 10 years that youngsters are ready to fight wars for Russia and Israel. “Whenever they hear of jobs, they gather in thousands and there is a fear of stampede,” she said in a Hindi post on X.

Air India is yet to respond to the viral video.