
It is said in India that “i
f u pick up a stone from a street and throw it in any random direction, it will fall on an engineer.”What does this sarcastic statement signify? Well for one, it throws light on the abundance, the plentitude, the multitude, the profusion or shall I say epidemic of students with an engineering degree in India.
So let me don "
surgical gloves" and do some forensic analysis to find the cause of this disease that has infected the youths of India today. As to what credentials I have, to make such an atrocious statement.....well, I am just another engineer (By default)....in this horde.
I have nothing against engineering per se.....in fact I consider it to be one of the best professional courses that the mankind has to offer. All throughout the history it has been engineers who have brought about inventions in technology/science for the betterment of mankind.
Bridges, dams, airplanes, tanks, computers, internet etc etc etc....all because of engineers. You look at any gadget that complements your day to day life and you will have an engineer’s mind behind it.
So as I have stated, I have nothing against the breed or the field. But we are here to analyze
the cause of an epidemic specific to India.
The problem is more complex than it appears and actually questions the culture, mentality, outlook, mindset, and way of thinking of us Indians.
Let me take you through the Engineering timeline in India:
1.
The 50's- 60's : After independence the government took upon it to see that youths of India had equal opportunities is f mot more as compared with their peers in the west in terms of education. The government set up national institutes, which had high standards and some regional institutes with fair standards. To be an engineer was not for every one and only the bright, hard working guys (also girls) with an aptitude for the field were able to get the admission and pursue the course. After graduating most took jobs in state run companies, few in the private firms (mostly mechanical/civil/chemical etc) and even fewer and I mean fewer ventured west.
2.
The 70's - 80's: Considering the ever growing population of the country and a hunger for higher education by the youths, more Institutes were set up y the government but that wasn’t all. So few private players and a few trusts’ came forward with new Institutes. So India started to churn out more and more Engineers now. But, the job opportunities for the really talented and bright ones was something that the government and the economy at that time could not offer. So we saw a phenomenon that we refer today as "
Brain Drain". Result”
best of the best went to the west. “
But still there were a considerable number of people who worked in India in both public and private sector. Engineering had certainly become one of the choicest of professional course in India; it was easier to be an engineer now in India than ever before. This period also saw the emergence of a new field of engineering “Computers".
3.
The 90's: This decade brought with itself globalization, liberalization, privatization or simply LPG as the MBA's say. India witnessed growth as never before, there was a boom. The Bull was riding; License Raj came to an end. More and more MNC;'s were setting up offices in India and they wanted domestic talent. Even Indian companies were expanding, there was a great demand for talented engineers and there was gap in the output of production factories of engineers and the requirement. Many private players saw this as a great opportunity and stared to set up private colleges across the country in large scale. Admission into many of these did not require much of talent but more of money on your Dad's part. Donations for admission became common and colleges started to be filled up with students who were there for the heck of it and had no clue what they were doing. There was no dearth of job opportunities if you were in a decently reputed college. Companies wanted more.
By the end of this decade a new phenomenon had gripped the country "
Off shoring". While India was booming the West had a slowdown with minimal growth, the companies were looking to reduce costs of operation and then they saw heaven in India. A country with numerous (literally) graduates more that any where else, a country with more engineers than entire Europe. So what if all of them were not actually at par with the engineers of the west (thanks to the low grade of education in many institutes and the large intake of students), as it is the work they were doing was second grade and what more they were doing it cheap (thanks again to the dollar -rupee difference).
The MNC's were ecstatic they could foresee how they would be saving Billions, India was happy, engineers were happy, they had so many jobs…. as never before . It was very easy to find a job and what more the MNC's paid you well too, no point grilling your arse for the public sector. Hey they have a 5 day work week...Yippee....
4.
The new millennium: With the new millennium came the IT revolution in India, there were SEZ /STP's for IT companies set up by the government. There were many tax benefits and other soaps given to them and what more it was cheap to set up and IT company as compared to some other sector companies. This and many other factors contributed in mushrooming of IT/ITES companies in India. You could find one in every nook and corner. In a way it was good for Indian entrepreneur as more and more guys stared opening their own firms and it also resulted in "
reverse brain drain"...Indians settled in west coming back to set up companies in India.
All this did wonders to Indian economy and the GDP for that matter. But these huge technology factories did not take steel/iron/coal as raw material but thrived on Humans (read engineers) . Companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, IBM, Accenture and many other big players each employed over 100,000 people (again read engineers). With such high demands even a country like India had a problem churning out enough "
computer engineer", despite having production line that would have impressed Henry Ford.
With such grave situation, just to open new colleges by private players was not enough, so a new branch "
IT" was introduced by some smart ass which was no different that "
Computer branch" except the name of course.
So with the same infrastructure Institutes added a new stream and started churning out more students that could be employed with these companies. Institutes were delighted, never before they had seen such record placements. There were cases when entire batch getting placed in a single day by the same company.
Everyone was happy.
But the hunger of IT companies did not subside, they wanted more and they wanted it fast.
So the companies changed their tactics, why go for “
computer engineers", let us simply go for "
engineers" only as it is, all the students that the companies recruited were hardly employable and companies needed to train them on technologies in house. So what if we recruit, mechanical, civil, electronic or chemical engg....all we have to do is train them a little more. So a compromise was made and also the eligibility criteria’s were lowered.
But like any “
Evil Corporate”, the hunger of IT was insatiable, and they decided to pray on another category of students “BSc & MSc in Science/Computers (BCA)” and similar graduates. The advantage being pay less to these guys compared to engineers and these guys did not switch companies that often. Win, Win & Win again. IT was on a roll. A new generation was born “
Cyber Slaves”, and their discipline/dedication would have put the parades of soviet era to shame.
I would like to clarify that by no means I have anything against IT companies, for one even I work in one of these “
Evil Corps”. I am just elucidating about certain facts ……. what can I say…ahem…..in “Rather dramatic way”.
Having laid down the facts let me also do a quick outlook of Indian Middleclass/Service Class as to what resulted in this phenomenon.
Note: I do not pride myself as being a great sociologist nor am I a authority on Indian culture/society. What I write is derived from my own experiences and of my fellow beings. I do not know how things have changed to day in Indian Education and my reference are to the times when I was a student, which if not prehistoric is merely 5-10 year old.So here it goes.
In India it is natural for any remotely bright student to pick science stream over commerce/arts post 10’th grade.
If a person scoring above 80 % in 10’th grade told his parents, “Dad/Mom, I want to take arts. I want to pursue a career in History”. That poor chap was either taken to a psychiatrist for mental examination or primitive/rudimentary ways to rebuking were used to get his mind on track. Such thought were enough to qualify yourself to the asylum. Such was a state that the students pursuing fine arts were looked down as being a “
Dunce”.The Indian Hierarchy was set:
1. Science
2. Commerce
3. Arts
It was naturally considered by anyone that a person taking up Arts in 11-12’th grade was a loser in life. It was an unsaid fact.
Now why this was the mentality also has a reason, which was simple enough. Only science graduates landed up
decent paying jobs in varying sector.
For Arts student it was considered that they will end up being a teacher or Professor (for brighter ones amongst them).
Then in Science category the only feasible options were “
Engineer” and “
Doctor”. Of course it was not easy being a doctor as it required “money (for donations”), “available seats were less”, the course was lengthy and in short it was tougher course to pursue than engineering.
So for all “Intelligent (supposedly) “students engineering was the “
name of the game” that would fetch them good jobs and great riches (to some it got).
In Indian society it is seldom what the child wants and more often we end up pursuing career that our parents want for us, simply because they do not know better, which again is fair, as earlier there were really not many job opportunities for normal graduates.
The better the engineering college (
IIT Dream) the better it was for the student as the better (high paying) job he will get.
So people actually took a drop after school to get into one of the top notch colleges, even at the cost of wasting years and making repetitive attempts. The whole aura of getting into IIT’s and other top notch colleges is so much that students sacrifice their sleep, there joys, there happiness to get into them and at times regret that once they are in there.
I never actually wanted to be an engineer; it’s just that I knew no better. Like any adolescent I had no clue as to what to do with my life, so I took the advice from my parents, friends, and elders and took the plunge. I did have interests in literature, history, archaeology, travel but I had no clue what I could do with them, how I could use them to make money nor did anyone I knew.
We as a society govern our actions on what others would say and on what the others do and seldom actually use our own intellect to think what we actually want and pursue it.
But I do think that the times are changing, at least of what I have seen of generation “
Z”, people have started pursuing jobs in fields and sectors that they really are interested in and even parents are supporting them. Today there are more diverse opportunities than before and this change is for good.
As for engineering, well the whole image (respect) of an engineer is in doldrums today, as any
tom, dick and harry can be one. The engineers of today by the time they graduate do not even remember the names of all the subjects they have studied in the duration of the course let alone the knowledge they acquired from it.
If you think this is bad, you do not have any clue of the plight of an Indian
MBA…….