‘Their Life After Retirement’ Series Part 2

Some people find unusual solutions to their problem. It is not a well-trodden path so there are difficulties at every step. This is what Dipak and Sonali Ghule did. And succeeded.

(This is the second blog post on the theme of ‘Life After Retirement.’ Retirement means here any loss of job, voluntary or otherwise. The First blog ‘Their Life After Retirement can be accessed here. One more blog post will follow. I will cover stories of successful self-reinvention, call it a deliberate change of identity if you wish, and also some heart wrenching stories. Hopefully my blog posts will lead to heightened sensitivity to the social issues presented.)

I met Dipak and his wife Sonali Ghule in 2020, or five years ago, and covered their story in my blog post “The Untold Ordeal of Suzlon Workers” . One aspect of the story was ‘migration driven by economic distress.‘ Let me mention it in brief.

“I am 38 years old, and there is no way I will get a regular job.” Dipak said. He decided not to find work, instead study English language and qualify for migrating to Australia. A large bunch of skilled workers from Tata Motors had already migrated to Australia, he told me. He expects them to help him when he lands there. The inspiration came from his month-long visit to Germany where Suzlon had sent him on an assignment.

How will his son who is studying in 5th standard adjust to a new country if he goes to Australia, I asked. ‘Let me solve one problem at a time,’ he said and laughed. (Note: It was in 2020, now in 2025 he will appear for the 10^th Standard exam this year. Dipak and Sonali Ghule now have a two year old daughter, Ojaswi.)

Dipak has appeared and failed in the Australian visa qualifying English test two times so far. Sonali and Dipak are aware that the time is running out. Because he is not earning, he is digging into the compensation received from Suzlon.

“Can you manage in Rs 12 thousand?” I asked. There was a nervous laughter and silence.

“No way, sir! The house rent of Rs 5000 per month takes a major bite in our salary.”

Dipak received many setbacks. He had to spend a substantial amount for his mother’s treatment when she suffered a heart attack. But he had indomitable spirit.

Dipak rented a room with a friend where he would go and study every day. He had to raise his proficiency in English. He enrolled for International English Language Testing System (IELTS) – an English Language proficiency test. Globally, there are more than 4 million test takers a year, making IELTS the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration.

IELTS is developed and run by the British Council in partnership with IDP Education and Cambridge Assessment English. IELTS assesses the four key skills – Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.

And he also took ‘Pearson Tests of English’ which is a world-leading provider of English language tests. The results are accepted for visa applications to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.

Dipak got his skill assessment done in 2019 and applied for visa, but before ‘Invitation Form’ could arrive from Australia, the Corona epidemic intervened. Australia stopped immigration and it reopened only for certain ‘talents’ like healthcare professionals.

This meant Skill assessments had to be redone as the results are valid only for a certain fixed period, moreover, it meant substantial cost! He financed it with a loan from a cooperative bank. But his score (Australia follows a point system which is based on the skills and age) got reduced because he had crossed 40!

In all these developments, Dipak also trained his wife Sonali (she is an Arts graduate) in English proficiency, and she cleared the Pearson Tests in the first attempt.

But living on the meagre funds which he received when he exited Suzlon were inadequate. Moreover, the cost of living in Pune was high and rising. Dipak accepted a job at Manchar (about 65 Kms away) and continued his efforts to obtain Australian visa.

Finally, Dipak has received his Australian visa in November 2024, and so also for his family. He will fly to Sydney in February 2025, that is within the next fortnight! His wife, son and daughter will follow him there in November.

Dipak has a few friends in Sydney who said they know of a few companies where he might find a job. He is going there with a twinkle in his eyes. Dilip joined Suzlon in 2005 on a salary of Rs 4,400. Coming from a poor family – (his father worked as a ‘hamal’ – casual worker) he learnt the skills of Fitter at ITI, and he worked as a temporary hand before finding a permanent job at Suzlon. He lost his job like several at Suzlon but saw a big dream of migrating to Australia.

Dipak is 42 and his wife, Sonali, 41. Middle aged, as we would say. Yet they are not settled in life. They feel that with passing age their ability to find a job which gives them a reasonable standard of living and a reasonable kitty for retirement will only be a mirage.

In India, he can find a job only as a contract worker and which would fetch him minimum wages, which are not even subsistence level wages.

“Are there more people like you who are moving abroad for jobs?” I asked.

“About twenty workers who have worked in VW in Pune are already in Sydney. Many workers who worked at Tata Motors, permanent or otherwise, have also moved to Australia.”

“A small group of them is in Adelaide, they say”

“General Motors Plant was closed in Talegaon. Four workers from GM are also in Australia.”

“Interestingly, some workers are thinking of migrating although they have a permanent job. They are thinking ‘What if? Acting out of fear.”

“A few workers of Tata BlueScope – it closed shutters of its Hinjewadi plant – have also gone abroad. Seven or eight went to Romania.”

“Four have gone to Poland”

“Two have moved to the Jaguar plant in Slovakia”

“They take loan to travel. They pledge their gold – wife’s jewellery. Lenders charge them 14% interest and if you delay payment even by one day, they charge higher interest for the entire period!”

“There are fake agencies who have cheated workers. One agency took a few workers to Dubai on the promise of getting them a job in a European country. In Dubai they were put in a room which accommodated forty persons. No news of further travel. The workers realised, after a few days, that they were duped and have lodged a complaint before the police”

“But precious savings are lost! They were poor and now they are robbed!!”

“Even if you find a job abroad, you can’t take family. It is allowed in Australia but not in other countries”

“This means that either you earn below-subsistence level wages, work as contract worker, and be with your family here or you go abroad, liquidating your savings, earn good money but sacrificing family life, because the family stays back.”

What they did not mention was the fall in their social status when you lose job. It is a hard hit which destroys confidence. It strains relationships. I know a worker who has stopped talking to his relatives.

The reality of unemployment is harsh and digs at the very existence of people. Economic distress is like a life sentence! The reality of living on exploitative wages is harsh too. The human life is cheap; the business community is completely profit focused.

This is the society we are building, where extreme insecurity is the order of the day! And they are at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ as management experts say. The base is too brittle now to withstand the pressure.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All work is copyrighted.