Ways to get jobs and promotions...

A news item that I read today on MidDay, a popular local newspaper of Mumbai, prompted to me to post this. The news reads.. "BMC (Bombay Muncipal Corporation) official divorces wife to ensure he gets promotion under the 'non -creamy' layer; dismissed after truth comes to light... ". We see here how people are manipulating to derive benefits, that they don't really deserve as per the regulations of governance...

What comes to my mind at this point time is an incident that i came across almost 27 years back. I was working in Bokaro steel plant, in Bihar state of India; and I was on shifts... every week my shift changes.. shift timings are morning 6 to 2; 2 to 10, and 10 to 6... Few employees in the shift who are in their early fifties would never go home after completing their work at 10 in the night, or come for work directly from home for early morning shift... whereas, many others commute may be 3 to 4 kilometers by bicycle... I was curious to know why they are afraid of commuting in the night, along with many other colleagues of theirs... They were reluctant to tell me, and I don't also understand the psyche of the people living in that part of the country.

After quite a bit of persuasion, they told me the reason. They are afraid of none other than their sons. I couldn't believe. Yes, thats the fact. In order to get job in the same company, as dependent of deceased, they are afraid that their sons would kill them. Then people started telling me stories of such happening in that part of the country. It was frightening for me to hear all that. But it seems such things are common there.

Another interesting characteristics in some people there i noticed was a father and his different sons in a family will have different surnames. I was curious to know why this, and they had casual answers for this. When the child is to be put in school, they check what surname goes well in the job market (I don't now, how can they predict the market about 18 - 20 years ahead). They believe that, a surname 'prasad' might have high probability of getting selected compared to surname 'singh' for 'sarkari' job, then that surname is put for the child. They believe that, in interviews, the surname is what matters in getting a 'secure' job. It seems it is very common in that part of the country.

All these came to my mind, when i read the news item today about an officer theoretically (and not practically) divorcing his wife to get a promotion on job. The news item ends with "An investigation revealed 26 such cases in the city of Mumbai's Municipal Corporation offices.

What's the motivation behind all these kind of actions? Must be eagerness to get a 'secure' job at any cost, and the cost can range from divorcing wife to killing father. Only few such incidents would come out in light, whereas many such would be happening in the society. Thought of sharing this thought to all those read my blog...