VIDEO: How The Fraud Agents Are Destroying Indian Maritime Industry

Anviksha G Gadge, a third officer with one of the prestigious maritime companies, shares her thoughts about the ongoing job scam in Merchant Navy and how the innocent young aspirants are cheated by the shrewd agents in India.

Nowadays, without a doubt Merchant Navy has become one of the most sought after professions in India. Most of the students after passing out from school look up to Merchant Navy as their prospective career option.

But the problem is that most of these students are not fully aware of this profession and are usually misguided and exploited by the greedy agents, some fake institutes and agencies, and become prey to the ongoing fraud in the merchant navy.

How The Fraud In Merchant Navy Is Exploiting The Aspirants

I would like to explain it in the following way:

These days what is the biggest source of information available to us?

We all know, it is the internet, Google, or Facebook to be exact. Just try searching on the internet about how to join the merchant navy in India, the results will show you how the newcomers are misled and exploited. What we get on Facebook groups or via google searches are advertisements by the institutes, fake companies, and agents boasting catchy lines like “Opportunity to go abroad and earn up to 100,000/- per month. Get admission here.”

The students who have no information about the merchant navy fall into this trap and ruin their as well as their family’s life.

Here, I would like to emphasize that all the institutes are not fake, but there are very few institutes which have some standard and provide placements after the completion of the courses.

In the recent past, we saw how the students of one of the best maritime colleges of India came out to protest because of no placement provided by the college. This indicates the present scenario of the Maritime sector in India. It also indicates the level of ongoing fraud in the merchant navy.

Honestly speaking, Merchant navy is a profession that anyone can fall for without knowing the actual job, what does a newcomer see? Just the uniform, sea, opportunity to go abroad, and most importantly salary, this is what they fall for without any real or true knowledge about life at sea.

Sadly, in India most of the institutes have sub-standard training facilities and no placement guarantee. Institutes are more focused on draining out money from the students’ pockets rather than concentrating on proper training to enhance their skills. It is more of a business and less of education these days.

Parents sell their lands, houses, farms, and even take loans for the education of their children hoping that their children will secure a high-paying merchant navy job and will lead a comfortable life in the future.

Video By: International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN)

Securing admission in a maritime college is just the first phase, next and the most painful phase is when one finishes his/her training and has to look for the job and this is the time when the freshers are most exposed to the ongoing fraud in merchant navy. The freshers have to struggle a lot to secure a job, where they come across many fake and greedy people who are ready to suck out the remaining money out of the students’ pockets.

There are many cases where the agents have taken money (service charge) from the young candidates, promising placement in reputed companies and finally eloping with the money leaving the candidates high and dry.

What The Merchant Navy Aspirants Should Do?

1. A merchant navy aspirant should be well informed about the course he/she is planning to do.
   

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2. Should conduct thorough research on the college one chooses with focus on its placement records.
   

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3. One should always choose the right channel for entering this field.
   

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4. One should avoid any agents or agencies.
   

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5. Always keep in mind that most of the maritime courses in India are conducted by Indian Maritime University and its affiliated colleges, hence one should try to get in touch with them.
   

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6. One should avoid those websites and agents who claim that they can give you coaching for IMU CET. Remember they are there to just loot out your money.
   

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Finally, I would say that yes presently the maritime sector job scenario is not very bright and one might want to avoid getting into this field but if you have already made up your mind, make sure to take correct decisions and stay away from the thugs, you still can go on to achieve that dream of sailing out at high seas. The catch is to proceed via a right channel and make well informed decisions.