Shillong: Imagine you are a youth from Meghalaya, working hard to secure a job. And you get the job of your dreams. But you need the help of government officials: why? Because parents need to be convinced. When 41 nurses from Meghalaya were selected for a job in Japan and Singapore, the Meghalaya State Skill Development Society (MSSDS) along with the state government had one last job: convincing parents to allow their daughters and sons to work abroad.
Because in Meghalaya, like the rest of the Northeast, nothing seems more desirable than a government job.
But why were Meghalaya officials talking to parents about their childrens’ jobs abroad? Because the state government organised an Overseas Nursing Job Fair in August 2023, and witnessed an overwhelming registration with over 1,000 nurses participating.
To support the skilled nurses the government provided a grant of Rs 50,000 to candidates selected for the jobs abroad.
EastMojo interacted with the Executive Director of MSSDS, Ramkumar S, who explained the process in detail.
“Post the job fair, 27 nurses underwent training in the Japanese language in Bangalore through different agencies and all of them have got jobs. We have 6 in Japan already, and another 21 will reach Japan in the next 4 to 6 weeks. Similarly, 18 were shortlisted for Singapore and took their exams, of which 14 cleared the exams. Their documents are under process for visa and they are also likely to travel in the next 2 months so we will be having about 41 people working from Meghalaya in Japan and Singapore within the next 2 months,” mentioned Ramkumar.
Inspired by the success, the government aims to make this even bigger and even better. By the end of 2024, they hope another 100 people will be placed. Over the next 3-4 years, the plan is to help about 1000 people from Meghalaya land jobs in various countries: not only Japan and Singapore, but Australia, England and other places that provide these opportunities.
‘We miss our homes’
EastMojo also reached out to the nurses in Japan working at Kōbe Kaisei Hospital and Tsurumaki Onsen Hospital.
Iaikyrmen Khardewsaw, a resident of Ri-Bhoi District, Meghalaya is currently working at Kobe Kaisei Hospital, Japan. She came to know about the job opportunity in Japan through the overseas nursing job fair conducted by the Meghalaya Government.
Khardewsaw underwent a six-month Japanese Language Training at the Navis Human Resources Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru.
She said learning a new language was tough and challenging at first, but she completed the course with hard work and dedication.
She also expressed her gratitude to the state government for providing them with such an opportunity.
“Japan is a beautiful country just like ours; people here are polite, helpful and kind. It is quite convenient but the food items here are a little expensive. The thing that I like the most here is the 100 Yen shop where we can find a variety of things at the price of 100 Yen. Every time I look at the hills near my residential area, it makes me miss home. If given a good offer, I would be happy to return home because home is where my heart is and there’s no place like home where happiness blooms,” said Khardewsaw.
Baniewkor Mukhim from Shillong too said that learning the Japanese language was hard.
The cost of the agency for the training held in Bangalore is Rs 3.5 lakh, of which the state government pays Rs 50,000. The remaining will have to be paid by the nurses once they start getting their salaries working in Japan.
Shishalapyntngen Lartang, a resident of Pyndensohsaw, East Khasi Hills District, told EastMojo that the difference between working in India and in Japan is that the workload is lighter in Japan as compared to India.
She added that life in Japan is nice, but she missed her country as the people are not as friendly as the people in India.
Luanda B Sangma from Tura West Garo Hills echoed similar opinions that life in Japan is busy and people are not that friendly. “But Japanese people are very kind and they respect other people’s space. The food and the cleanliness is astounding,” said Sangma.
Like all the other nurses, Sangma will continue working here but if given a good opportunity with a good salary in India like in Japan, Sangma is ready to return.
Meanwhile, Ramkumar said it was “nice to see our nurses pick up the language and be very good at it”.
‘Japanese elated with our nurses’ performance’
“It was challenging in the beginning but once they saw through, it was very good. Japanese employees are very happy about the nature of our nurses who are there, the skill levels they have and the politeness which is very important to work in these particular countries,” mentioned the executive director.
He also recalled that it did require convincing. For example, in the beginning, they were not sure how many of them would be willing to go because many people from Meghalaya would like to stay here and work here within the state and be here with their families.
“But this opportunity provides a very fantastic chance for them to go out and explore and even return. They don’t need to stay there forever: they can work for 5 years and they can come back and they can build here, they will be very skilled, and they would be very entrepreneurial. They would have seen the world and have better exposure and we will have a good community abroad also and they can come here and become even better-skilled workers also,” he added.
He stated that the department faced difficulties when they had to convince some parents since they were worried about their safety.
“Yes we chose carefully these places and agencies and they are very safe, and they are well taken care of and we don’t leave anything to chance. So that was done and as we know these countries Japan and Singapore are known very highly in the world for their safety and predictability,” stated Ramkumar.
Also Read: Life was hard for HIV/AIDS patients in Manipur: Then came the violence
You just read a story that took days to report. Help us keep our reporters on the ground in the Northeast.
Ad-free reading, support and keep important stories alive
Support once (any amount)
Scan to pay via UPI