Opportunities Trump Dangers for Indians in Afghanistan

Bryan Denton for The New York Times An Indian Sikh security guard watching over the construction of the new Afghan Parliament building in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Nov. 22, 2011.

KABUL, Afghanistanâ€" Banuchandar Rajendran, an Indian from the town of Usilampatti in Tamil Nadu, spent a lonely Independence Day on Aug. 15 at a Sikh temple in Kabul where he had taken refuge after his Afghan visa expired.

Mr. Rajendran, who came to Afghanistan on the promise of a job as a security guard in an American military base for $800 every month, had been swindled out of 150,000 rupees, or $2,300, by his employment agent in India. After paying the money and waiting here for three months, the 28-year-old had found out there was no job and was left with just enough money for his phone and cigarettes.

The Indian Embassy in Kabul said that as of mid-August, 70 “distressed Indians,” who were similarly abandoned, were sent back to India. Last year, there were 160.

The Afghan Sikhs, who had given many of the Indians refuge in their temple in Kabul, described them as mostly poor folk, who had taken loans and sold off their land to pay commission to fraudulent employment agents. They came with the hope of earning double the money paid for low-skilled jobs in India.

But Mr. Rajendran, a college graduate in hotel management who spoke fluent English, didn’t fit the description of someone who would be seeking a low-skilled job in a dangerous country.

“Desperation,” Mr. Rajendran explained. “I knew about the Taliban and how the situation could be bad if the U.S. Army leaves. But all that matters right now is the high salary.”

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma Banuchandar Rajendran, an Indian worker, at a Sikh temple in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15.

After being fired from his call center position for fighting with his boss, and losing his 17,000-rupee monthly salary, Mr. Rajendran had failed to land another job in India. His father, a grocer, has savings of 70,000 rupees, out of which they were still supporting the younger Mr. Rajendran. “Now, I would rather die here or do a sweeper’s job than go home without anything,” he said.

The estimated 3,500 Indians living in Afghanistan cut across economic and social backgrounds to include cooks, security guards, diplomats, government officials, doctors, academics, social workers, managers, businessmen, engineers and entrepreneurs. (This number does not include the Indians working on American bases.)

Different pressures and dreams have compelled them to face the risks of living in this war-torn country over the comfort of their homes in India or of heading to safer employment hubs like Dubai. Most have been driven by money.

For Indian businessmen and entrepreneurs, the opportunities that flourished around a post-war economy, especially as contracts with the American companies were for the taking. Indian activists came to be part of a massive revival of education and women’s rights.

For Indians working as cooks, waiters and bellhops in Afghanistan, a higher salary in comparison to India has given them a chance to leap to the next economic level. They hope to buy a plot of land for building their own house and send their children to better schools.

These Indians are striving to improve their lives in the backdrop of a larger tug of war between India and Pakistan for presence and influence in Afghanistan, with consequences for the peace and stability of the region. To establish itself as a “soft power,” New Delhi has so far given $2 billion in aid to Afghanistan for various developmental projects including the country’s Parliament building.

An Indian consortium of public and private companies has also won the bid to develop the Hajigak iron ore mines in the Bamyan province for more than $10 billion, which will be the largest single foreign investment after a contract with the Afghan government next year.

Now with the United States scheduled to hand security responsibility to the Afghan forces next year and apprehensions mounting over the security situation, it is not only the Indian government that is strategizing about the size of its footprint in the country after 2014.

The Indians working in Afghanistan are evaluating the prospective gains against the risks in continuing to stay on. Many of them and their families back home were rattled by the attempted bombing on Aug. 3 of the Indian consulate in Jalalabad, which killed nine Afghan civilians.

Car bombs targeted the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009, with the first attack claiming the lives of four Indian officials. Both of these attacks were blamed on the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction closely associated with Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence.

Nine Indians were killed in 2010 and three more this July in attacks by militants. Last week, an Indian author living in Paktika province was shot dead after being abducted by masked men.

Those living here are watching how the situation unfolds before finally deciding to leave. With the India economy suffering a setback and the rupee weakening, these Indians are not packing their bags yet.

At 11 p.m. on a warm August night in Kabul, Shahid Hussain was on duty as a bellhop at the Safi Landmark hotel located in Kabul’s city center. Before coming to Afghanistan in 2008, Mr. Hussain, 43, from Allahabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh, earned a monthly 4,500 rupees as a security supervisor in a Gujarat factory of Rupa Frontline, an undergarments manufacturer.

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma Shahid Hussain, an Indian worker, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 10.

Mr. Hussain, who now earns 25,000 rupees, said that he had to look for jobs outside India to support a family of four children. “With no college degree, I could never get a job that would give me more than 10,000 rupees even if I worked for years,” he said.

Salaries in Afghanistan reflect the risks involved. In Dubai, for instance, a similar job would pay 17,000 rupees. In September, as the rupee crashed against the dollar, Mr. Hussain said that his salary went up to 28,000 rupees.

Since his expenses in Afghanistan are minimal, Mr. Hussain is able to transfer almost his entire salary back to his family, now settled in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. But with spending on rent, household expenses and school fees back home, the bellhop still isn’t close to fulfilling his dream of building his own house. “Just buying the plot of land will cost 800,000 rupees, but I am trying for it,” he said.

While going about his duties, Mr. Hussain admitted that his family is worried about his safety, but he said that if he could bear the separation for a few years more, they would all be happier in the future.

And Mr. Hussain’s family has reason to be worried because the Safi Landmark hotel was hit in 2010 and 2011 in deadly suicide attacks. In 2011, Mr. Hussain recalled hearing a massive blast as a bomb exploded outside the hotel. “It nearly deafened me,” he said.

To fight his loneliness, Mr. Hussain spends most of his free time chatting with his family over the Internet, especially with his wife, whom he shyly admitted to “loving too much.”

He and his wife separately watch the Indian soap opera “Pavitra Rishta” (pure relationship) and the historical drama “Jodha Akbar” on Zee TV. “Then, we discuss what happened and what’s going to happen next. It’s fun,” he said, chuckling.

Despite the reports of violence, one of the biggest problems Indians are likely to encounter in Afghanistan is that of boredom. Vijai Juyal, 27, who sought to double his 15,000-rupee monthly salary as a cook in Delhi, has not stepped up out even once from his restaurant and the adjoining quarters since arriving in April.

“Of course, I get bored. One gets sick of the television and Internet as well,” he said. “But I don’t want to step out and take the risk of anything bad happening. I’m here to make money and that’s it.”

To those living in India, the killing of their countrymen in Afghanistan seems the norm, but the Indians who live in Afghanistan say they have experienced an overwhelming flood of love and warmth from Afghans.

The first question usually posed by Afghans is whether one is from India or Pakistan. Once the Indian identity is established, the tales begin about visits to India, favorite Bollywood films and the latest songs downloaded on their mobile phones.

Cab drivers, who hum the lyrics and tap their fingers on the steering wheel to old songs from movies like “Mughal-e-Azam” playing on Afghan radio stations, never fail to point out where a scene from the 1992 epic “Khuda Gawah” was shot.

“This is the only country in the world where Indians are loved and respected so much,” said Linesh T.K., from Bangalore, Karnataka, who described Kabul as “a happening place,” where he could walk outside at night without fear, until 2006.

For him, the city also turned out to be a land of opportunity. Mr. Linesh came to Afghanistan to work as a hotel manager and now is co-owner, along with an Afghani, of the Golden Star hotel, where a room costs up to $200. In India, the businessman said, he wouldn’t have attempted setting up a high-end hotel because a few influential business groups still monopolized the industry.

Mr. Linesh estimated that in Kabul, he pays 25 percent less for rent as compared to Delhi, and he can pay 25 percent less to Afghan employees.

Despite such advantages, few Indians are doing business in the country. In spite of efforts by the Indian government to get Indian companies to invest in Afghanistan in areas like cement and textiles, including by organizing several visits of business delegations, most have stayed away largely because of security concerns and poor infrastructure.

Many Indians in Afghanistan rule out a doomsday situation after the United States ends its military involvement in the country. They see several positive changes in the country, like a stronger army and a shifting of public attitudes against extremism. Besides, thousands of residual troops are expected to be staying on in Afghanistan.

Sunil Bhardwaj, a general manager of a company based in Dubai that provides information technology to the telecom sector, said that his company had no plans for drawing down in the immediate future because it has a market outside American contracts. “We are still looking for more Indians to come here and work,” he said.

But those in the service industry are already feeling the effects of the withdrawal. Mr. Linesh recalled that in August 2012, all of his 80 rooms were fully booked. This year, 20 were empty as the deluge of foreign contractors and international NGO workers who visited the country slowly becomes a trickle.

Still, Mr. Linesh is confident that business will hold steady, if not boom. “Everyone is not going to run out of Afghanistan at once,” he said.

For restaurant owners, however, a shrunken American community is going to hit hard. Jay Kumar, a 28-year-old from the state of Jharkhand who is a co-owner of a Bangladeshi restaurant in Kabul, said that when a party of four Americans comes in, they rack up a $300 order. By contrast, a bill for a similar-sized party of Indians would end up being only $40. “The Americans eat more and tip more,” said Mr. Kumar, laughing.

And for a few desperate folks, like Mr. Rajendran, it doesn’t matter what the Americans do or don’t do. Mr. Rajendran is continuing his job search in Afghanistan. An employment agent, he said, had recently contacted him about a possible assignment as a security guard at the American Army base if he could pay $1,000 as commission or a job in catering if he could pay $500.

“I don’t know how I will raise the money, but I will try,” he said by phone from Kabul on Monday. “Right now, I can face the Taliban but not my father.”

Betwa Sharma is a Delhi-based freelance journalist.