Moonlighting once made Indian docs millionaires in US

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By S Jha

New Delhi, September 29: While the IT professionals animatedly debate the sacking of 300 employees by Wipro for moonlighting, extra work in non-office hours had made a number of Indian doctors and other professionals in the US millionaires.

The IT majors in India have called moonlighting a fraudulent activities, with some of the executives even calling for building a real time data base on the lines of CIBIL to track down the activities of the professionals.

The Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji has been most vocal against the practice of moonlighting, calling it cheating. Union Minister for IT and Electronics Rajeev Chandrashekhar has, however, disagreed with Premji, arguing that a number of innovations have taken place by works taken up under moonlighting only, which is a global trend that India cannot stop.

In fact a number of the early immigrants to the US had richly gained from moonlighting because of the draft there which lasted until 1973.

“While the US was drafting the young people, many of them flew away to the European countries to pursue academic courses to avoid the compulsory military services. Indians in the US – doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists and other professionals — got chances to make money through moonlighting, and most of them became millionaires over the years,” former Foreign Secretary Shashank told the Raisina Hills during a video discussion hosted by the Strategic Affairs Editor Manish Anand.

He said that the Indian professionals were moonlighting, taking up works in their non-office hours in the evening.

“The Indian doctors will work in their hospitals in the day time and at night they would work privately, and the local governments didn’t object, because they were very short of the manpower,” said ambassador Shashank, who was India’s Foreign Secretary during 2003-04.

He also cited another example from Egypt where he was posted during his diplomatic career where again draft was taking place and the government had promised that all would be absorbed in state departments after two years of military service at 26 pound a month salary.

“It so happened every young person had to be put in the army for two years and later they all turned up to take up the government jobs. There would not be enough chairs at the workplaces for them to sit. Such people would then drive taxi, run tution centres and do other gainful activities. We saw such things happening in many countries,” added the veteran diplomat.

On the raging debate within the country over the moonlighting being called cheating, ambassador Shashank lamented the current practice of an employment contract making the employees ‘girmitiyas (such people were sent out by the British to work on sugarcane fields in Mauritius and Caribbean countries)’

“The government has become a partner with the private corporation, giving them lot of benefits in taxes and providing all kinds of market access. But we don’t feel the same approach on the part of the government for the people (employees), who are put under all kinds of restrictions. Are we replacing girmitiyas with contract, allowing the private companies complete control over their bodies and sleep,” said ambassador Shashank.

He suggested that the employers should work out compensation structure on the basis of skill sets and fixed hours and beyond that it should be a conflict of interest.

Former Foreign Secretary also underlined that there are several aspects of moonlighting that affect bilateral and FTAs (Free Trade Agreements), including the Indian companies lowering their quotations and hiring workers at lower salaries, while resorting to pressure tactics to ensure that they don’t leave their jobs.