State’s rural women flock to Mumbai for female firefighter jobs

5,000 women have showed up for the MFB’s recruitment drive since last Saturday, out of which around 2,500 of these were from Marathwada’s eight districts while a miniscule two percent were from Mumbai.

Mumbai: Last week, Maya Uttam Kakkade travelled with her one-year-old child from Jalna and waited all night outside the Gopinath Munde ground at Dahisar West for her turn at the Mumbai fire brigade (MHB) recruitment drive for women. Sadly, she was turned back.

Ganesh Madhukar Dabhade, athletics coach who has trained over 100 women at the Dabhade Krida Prabhodhani in Jalna, said that increasing unemployment and lack of job opportunities in the drought-prone Marathwada region was driving women to look for job opportunities in Mumbai. “Most men there, who are either farmers or work at odd jobs, are doing very badly,” he said. “Their condition is so bad that families survive on one meal a day.” (HT PHOTO)

“I need this job for my four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter back home,” said Kakkade. “During my training sessions, I used to leave them with my neighbour. Managing kids and making time for training was challenging. It is unfair that despite being 5 feet 4 inches, I was not even given a chance to participate.”

Kakkade is among the 5,000 women who have showed up for the MFB’s recruitment drive since last Saturday. Around 2,500 of these were from Marathwada’s eight districts while a miniscule two percent were from Mumbai.

Riya Jadhav, 24, a farmer’s wife who came from Beed district and participated on February 4, was also disappointed. “I trained so hard for this but they didn’t even bother to measure our height and just told us to leave the premises,” she told HT. Kiran Patole, 25, from Parbhani, added, “All my practice at Jalna Academy for the last one year has gone down the drain, and I was not even allowed to enter the recruitment centre despite being here since February 3. We will not go back home until we get a reimbursement of the ₹6000 that we spent on our stay.”

Ganesh Madhukar Dabhade, athletics coach who has trained over 100 women at the Dabhade Krida Prabhodhani in Jalna, said that increasing unemployment and lack of job opportunities in the drought-prone Marathwada region was driving women to look for job opportunities in Mumbai. “Most men there, who are either farmers or work at odd jobs, are doing very badly,” he said. “Their condition is so bad that families survive on one meal a day.”

When asked why there were no seekers from Mumbai, Dabhade said, “The local girls from Mumbai, Palghar and Thane are more interested in IT sector, nursing and call centre jobs. In rural Marathwada, any job is fine as they need work to feed themselves and their families. When one woman becomes a firefighter in Mumbai, others are encouraged and also decide to apply.”

There are 273 posts kept vacant for women firefighters, and if they are not filled up, MFB recruits men in their place. Last year, there were 113 posts.

Chief fire officer Sanjay Manjrekar said that the job of female firefighters was lucrative for women from the rural interiors. “They get a starting salary of ₹35,000, which even graduates don’t get today,” he said.

Dabhade believes that Mumbai women do not value the uniform or the fire brigade. “Their lifestyle is different,” he said. “When it comes to running and doing hard work, Marathwada women follow strict rules and are disciplined. Whereas Mumbai women are more delicate and unable to run or even do a long jump.”

Prakash Devdas, fire safety expert and president of the MFB Association, had a different view—he said that in the rural areas, there was a system devised for securing higher marks in boards and college examinations which gave rural women an edge. “The BMC considers only exam scores, which isn’t correct. If there is an interview as well, female contestants from Mumbai score better,” he remarked.

Devdas said that those recruited from the rural areas lacked the communication skills to conduct themselves. “We can’t complain because they too have the right to work in Mumbai,” he said. “But there is injustice caused to women candidates in Mumbai, and that is why there are few takers here.”