Tribal girls trained as air hostesses: Govt plan crashlands

The plan was to help tribal girls become air hostesses. But now, almost a year after the Maharashtra government...

The plan was to help tribal girls become air hostesses. But now, almost a year after the Maharashtra government selected 100 girls, sent them to a private academy for training and spent Rs 1 lakh on each of them, the scheme hangs in balance.

The reason: only eight of those girls were recruited by airlines, that too as groundstaff.

The girls, undergoing training at the Air Hostess Academy Private Ltd in Pune, are scheduled to pass out in March and the government, considering the the dismal placement percentage, is undecided whether to continue with the scheme next year or not.

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It is also looking at the possibility of involving the airlines directly in the scheme. “We want to ensure that all the girls selected for the training get placements in airlines,” Tribal Development Minister Vijaykumar Gavit said. “We are exploring the possibility of involving the airlines directly in our scheme so that the candidates have a better chance of getting jobs as air hostesses.”

He said that the government would approach both private and public sector airlines to involve them in training tribal girls as air hostesses. After working out the revised plan, a proposal would be presented in the state cabinet for a policy decision. He said the government would also ask Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to work out a training programme in the public sector airlines for the purpose.

“By March 3, the girls will complete their 12-month training and we are making efforts for their placement in airlines. Eight girls have been selected as members of the groundstaff in various private airlines and 68 girls are placed in the hospitality industry,” director of the AHA Daya Prakash told The Indian Express. “As of today no girl has been hired as an air hostess, but those hired as groundstaff would eventually be absorbed as air hostesses,” he said.

The girls are scheduled to appear for their week-long examinations from the third week of this month, followed by one week of training in information technology. Reacting to the government move to involve airlines in the scheme, he pointed out that only one airline provided in-house training for air hostesses and the intake capacity was very less as it was only for its own use. He said such airlines were unlikely to train and hire tribal girls as air hostesses.