Survey

What happens when highly educated Indian Muslims apply for jobs in the modern urban private sector, encompassing multinational corporations as well as prominent Indian companies? Two surveys reported in Economic and Political Weekly of 13-19 October give an unequivocal answer. ‘The Legacy of Social Exclusion: A Correspondence Study of Job Discrimination in India”, an article by Sukhadeo Thorat and Paul Attewell, examines the prevalence of discrimination in the job application process of private sector enterprises in India . The study is based on a field experiment where Sukhadeo Thorat and Paul Attewell selected advertisements for graduates from five English language dailies and sent in 4,808 (fictitious) applications from persons who claimed to have the right degrees. Each application was sent in as an upper caste Hindu applicant, as a Dalit and as a Muslim. Using statistical analysis they assess the data and find that discriminatory processes operate even at the first stage of the application process. They ran a number of different tests on the likelihood of being called for interview. They found that a Dalit had a two-thirds chance of being called, and a Muslim had only one-third chance as an upper-caste Hindu. An under qualified Hindu candidate had almost 90 per cent as much likelihood of being called for interview as a qualified Dalit, and 60 per cent as much probability as a qualified Hindu; in other words, even if under qualified, he was almost as likely to be called for interview as a qualified Dalit. An overqualified Dalit had roughly 80 per cent chance of being called as a qualified Hindu. The study documents a pattern of decision-making by private sector employers that repeatedly advantages job applicants from Hindu higher caste backgrounds and disadvantages low-caste and Muslim job applicants with equal qualifications.


The aim of the study was to select jobs that a university graduate might be eligible for within the first few years after graduation: entry-level or near entry-level positions. The companies whose advertisements we responded to included securities and investment companies; pharmaceuticals and medical sales; computer sales, support, and IT services; manufacturing of many kinds; accounting firms; automobile sales and financing; marketing and mass media; veterinary and agricultural sales; construction; and banking. This field experiment study of job applications observed a statistically significant pattern by which, on average, college-educated lower-caste and Muslim job applicants fare less well than equivalently-qualified applicants with high caste names, when applying by mail for employment in the modern private-enterprise sector. The only aspect of family background that was communicated in these applications was the applicant’s name, yet this was enough to generate a different pattern of responses to applications from Muslims and dalits, compared to high caste Hindu names. These were all highly-educated and appropriately qualified applicants attempting to enter the modern private sector, yet even in this sector, caste and religion proved influential in determining ones job chances. According to the study these discriminatory outcomes occurred at the very first stage of the process that Indian university graduates go through to apply for a job. The study did not collect data on who was ultimately hired for these particular jobs. But it speculated that if caste and communal discrimination are evident even at this early phase of the application process in India, then final hiring decisions are unlikely to be equitable. In another study by US-based HR firm Kelly Services also revealed that discrimination is rampant at workplaces in India, based on age, gender and race, says a survey. About 64 per cent of Indians complain of job discrimination. States like Uttaranchal, Bihar and Jharkhand rank at the top as almost 100 per cent respondents in these states complain of prejudice at workplace, says the survey. Even developed states like Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka smell of discrimination with 80 per cent, 70 per cent and 58 per cent respondents, respectively, complaining of discrimination while on job for at least five years. States like Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have maximum discrimination at application stage, in that order. Haryana ranks lowest with about 40 per cent respondents complaining of prejudice while applying for jobs. Interestingly, sectors like IT, engineering and financial services are not untouched with about 62 per cent respondents in each complaining of having been discriminated against while applying for a job. But it were the government, travel and transportation sectors, where about 72 per cent, 74.4 per cent and 91 per cent respondents complained of prejudice. The India-based survey is part of Kelly Global Workforce (Discrimination) Index in which India ranks fifth. While workplaces in Sweden , Hungary, Thailand and Singapore rank the highest in job discrimination, Hong Kong and Indonesia rank the lowest. The global survey covered approximately 70,000 job seekers in 28 countries. Experts espouse the legislation of strict laws as an effective and efficient means of curbing job discrimination. Companies practicing job discrimination should be effectively sanctioned by the government. Such measures would be “enough to enact sustainable change”, without the ineffective methods of employer exhortation, persuasion, and “fair-employment programmes”. On a bigger scale, such measures can improve the economy considerably.The effective removal of job discrimination in India would come a long way in encouraging and promoting fair competition among employees. With greater competition, workers would be forced to improve themselves and work harder; thereby improving the country’s working productivity and quality.

Libya has built almost the ‘eighth wonder of the world’ by extracting the water from its under-desert aquifers and taking them to its cities on the coast.


By the year 1980, the first phase of Libya’s greatest manmade river (GMR) was in full operation. It took water from an underground natural reservoir to the coast through a 1,900 kms long pipeline.


Most of Libya’s 40 lakh people live along the coast. Growing numbers and the need to expand agriculture had put a strain on its water supply.


Initially water was taken in from the Sarir and Tazebo fields. From there, twin pipes will take the water by gravity to the reservoir Ajdabjya and from there by single pipes to Sirte and Benghazi. The pipeline is planned to carry two million square metres of water per day to provide for domestic, industrial purposes and to irrigate vast tracts of desert land in order to turn it into a fertile land.


Future phases of the GMR will involve taking water from the Fezzan field to Tripoli. There are plans to extend the pipeline into the Kufra, and also to link Tabruk with Ajdabjya.


Libyan scientists state that the underground reservoir is being constantly replenished by rainfall and underground seepage. Other geologists state that the water originated at a time, when this area was much wetter and that is about 30,000 years ago, before desertification set in. Tests also show that the rate of replenishment of the water may be less than its extraction.


There are also suggestions that the depth of water increases as pumping goes on. There are also apprehensions that water table of neighboring countries of Egypt and Sudan would dip as Libya sucks out the water. 


By 1996, when the water began to be used for garden and homes of Libya, the Great Man-Made River Project had reached one of its final stages. Leader of American Blacks Louis Farrakhan, who took part in the opening ceremony of this important stage of the project, described the Great Man-Made River as “another miracle in the desert.”


The Great Man-Made River, as the largest water transport project ever undertaken, has been described as the “eighth wonder of the world”. It carries more than five million cubic meters of water per day across the desert to coastal areas, vastly increasing the amount of arable land. The total cost of the huge project is expected to exceed $25 billion.