Flying High

The booming aviation industry in India is fulfilling the dreams of SC/ST and middle class girls from smaller towns with a job which is full of glamour, money and a chance to see the world. The girls who had seen planes in the sky are now actually flying on the sky.
A scheduled caste girl Ranjita Kathel from Jabalpur had dreams in her eyes. Her father Jagdish Kanthel was a worker at the health department of the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation. It was difficult for him to manage the family of six.
After failure in seven interviews for different jobs, Ranjita joined an aviation institute for a one-year diploma course at Jabalpur. And finally succeeded in getting a job at Air Arabia. Today she is getting Rs ten lakh per annum as air hostess. Ranjita had everything, she was good looking, with a perfect skin, which is one of the essential requirements for an air hostess job except she was not having the money to join any professional course.
But Madhya Pradesh government came to her rescue. She was part of the first batch of air hostess training programme financed by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan government at the local Frankfinn Aviation Institute.
Ranjita Kathel was groomed not only to face the interview but the world as well.
You could’t find many places on the Madhya Pradesh map, but you can find girls from those places at the aviation institute in Bhopal now. The girls from remote places such as Seoni Malwa, Katni, Bina, Amla, Sohagpur and Sarni are grooming themselves to be in the aviation industry as air-hostesses. Girls from smaller towns are flocking to such institutes with a dream and actually fulfilling it.
Director of Frankfinn Aviation Institute Bhopal Arun Gupta said, ” Middle India wants its share in aviation industry. They have the potential but they were not getting the chance earlier.” He said that the institutes has tied up with Madhya Pradesh government to provide training to candidates belonging to Scheduled caste and tribe category, as part of social commitment and a challenge. He believe that Frankfinn were providing a platform to these young girls.
Aarti from Rampura in Datia district is pursuing BCA(Bachelor of Computer Application) along with Air-hostess course. Like all other girls she also wants to fly and earn a lot of money.
Sushma Khatri, daughter of a police sub-inspector is working with JET Airways for the last three months. Based in Mumbai she also wants to earn money and travel to far off places.
SS Kumre, Deputy Secretary to chief minister in Madhya Pradesh said the government will be paying Rs one lakh per student for the training.
The aviation training institutes are proving helpful in developing the personality of these young girls. They were taught each and every aspect of an air-hostess. English language course is one of the most important areas these institutes have to work on these girls, as they come from a modest background with little knowledge of English.
But what about the job placement ? “The aviation industry expects 1.15 million job openings by 2010 for aviation and related industries. Not all of them are going to get job as air-hostesses, but they have other option such in travel and tourism industry,” said Frankfinn Director Arun Gupta.
Indian aviation industry is expected to grow at the rate of 20 per cent per year for the next ten years, a large number of requirements are likely to come up on the ground. Increasing number of domestic and international airlines have raised the requirements of hospitality, professionalism and of course, value for money.
07/06/08 Shuriah Niazi/Tehelka

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