Biggies hire air hostesses from tribal areas

IN normal circumstances, the recruitment of candidates from Pune’s Air Hostesses Academy (AHA) by Reliance, Jet Airways and Airports Authority of India (AAI) wouldn’t raise eyebrows at all. But add a fact about their background, and it paints a different picture. As many as 27 girls, from the tribal areas of Nandurbar and Chandrapur, have been picked by industry biggies for training. Only two years ago, a 100-odd had been chosen by AHA during a mass selection drive in Nashik.
Stunningly, of the 27 trainees comprising the first batch of enrolled students in the city, the employment firms rejected none. What’s more, the AAI took one of their batches to handle the traffic control rooms. AHA director Daya Prakash is naturally ecstatic. “The training period stretches up to a year, in which the latter six months entail the employment of the students as trainees, to assess their strengths and weaknesses,” he said on Wednesday.

Prakash added this was only a start. “In Maharashtra alone, our target is to register and train as many as 2,000 students,” he said.

It all started when AHA’s success at gearing up tribal girls — to make a mark in the service sector — inspired Minister of State (Home) Manikrao Gavit to push their cause through sponsorship. Under the Central Special Assistance Scheme launched in 2005, AHA received Rs one lakh per student, to facilitate enrollment and training of as many as 100 students in the academy.

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