Flying dream turns sour for these Dalits

Chennai: For Mahalakshmi (name changed), a poor Dalit girl from a village in Madurai district, flying in an aircraft was once a long-cherished dream.
Today, the very drone of a plane gives her nightmares.
Mahalakshmi, the daughter of a farm worker, was among the first batch of 96 Adi Dravidar girls who underwent one-year air hostess training in a leading academy in Chennai as part of a government scheme launched in 2006.
The scheme aimed at imparting free training to 100 Dalit girls every year at a total expenditure of Rs 1 crore. With their rural background and poor communication skills working to their disadvantage in the race for the glamourous job, the prevailing crisis in the aviation industry has only compounded their woes. While a handful of them managed to land as ground staff in private airlines, the others have gone back home with shattered dreams.
While some have got married, the others have decided to either continue their studies or settle for jobs with lesser salary.
“.. As the scheme drew much media publicity, my photo was featured in several magazines and my friends and relatives were confident that I would become an air hostess someday. But despite attending quite a number of interviews, I couldn’t get job with any airline and I am tired of giving explanations to people,” Mahalakshmi rues.
Of course, the Tamil Nadu government had implemented the scheme with good intentions. But, it should have given a thought to the practicalities which would have spared us from the embarrassment, she added. Those who have joined as ground staff are not happy either.
Dhanalakshmi, who works for the Emirates Airlines, says she is not a direct employee of the airlines and is working through an agent company. “.. I am drawing only Rs 6,500 per month,” she says.
K C S Kannan, senior manager, Air Hostess Academy Pvt Ltd, says the present problem is a temporary phenomenon.
06/11/08 Ajitha Karthikeyan/Times of India