The following article was published in the Straits Times on 6 Aug 1999.
'Set up job centres for aged'
By Salma Khalik
Straits Times, 6 August 1999
Work group also suggests reducing quota on lower skilled foreign workers in jobs that older Singaporeans can fill
SET up Silver Manpower Centres to train, counsel and find jobs for the elderly. At the same time, reduce the quota on lower-skilled foreign workers in jobs that can be done by older Singaporeans.
This will force employers here to turn to older Singaporeans to fill the vacancies.
The Government should also emphasise the training of older workers and have more skills-oriented programmes, rather than general training, for them.
These are the key suggestions from the inter-ministerial work group looking into the employment and employability of older people.
If accepted by the Government, work group chairman Yaacob Ibrahim said the first Silver Manpower Centre can be set up next year by the Central Community Development Council, which serves a largely elderly population.
The Parliamentary Secretary of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said the idea for the Silver Manpower Centres was borrowed from Japan, where such centres find employment for over 300,000 elderly people every year.
The work group is one of six set up to look at how best Singapore can cope with a rapidly ageing population. By the year 2030, almost one in five people here will be aged 65 or older.
Dr Yaacob was speaking at the launch of the Tsao Ng Yu Shun award for excellence in ageing study at the National University of Singapore yesterday. The first award went to a group of sociology students for their poster which showcased trends on ageing.
The Silver Manpower Centres, which should be located in housing estates, will look for job openings for people who are 60 years and older, said Dr Yaacob.
Many such jobs exist within the community, he said.
Petrol stations already employ older workers. Older women could help families with their cooking, cleaning or baby-sitting.
He said there were also many possibilities in the service sectors like food preparation, retail and cleaning services, and called for the gradual reduction of foreign worker quotas in these areas.
"It is only when foreign workers are not allowed or restricted that employers tend to turn to older workers," he said.
To ensure they remain employable, more attention should be paid to the training of older workers. Courses can be conducted in mother tongue, and be modular rather than in long stretches.
Dr Yaacob also urged government agencies and union co-operatives to "set the standard and be model employers in job and workplace redesign, flexible work arrangement and employment of older workers".
Friday, August 6, 1999
Sunday, August 1, 1999
Risky business in Little India
Risky business in Little India
Straits Times, 1 August 1999
EVERY Sunday evening, thousands of dollars change hands in a carpark and a field near Serangoon Plaza.
As evening shadows deepen, the handful of foreign workers swells to thousands and small clusters form around each hundi man. Hundi means "remittance" in Bengali.
People who live and work in Little India told The Sunday Times team it was on dangerous ground looking into the hundi business. "They are fearsome men," one said of the hundi and their bodyguards. As we approached a hundi, his burly phalanx of protectors tightened. A man demanded coarsely: "What you want?" He gesticulated at the team and shouted something in Bengali.
As four or five bodyguards closed in, The Sunday Times team sought the relative safety of Serangoon Plaza.
ATTRACTIVE RATES
THE hundi is the Bangladeshis' link to home, the channel through which they send money to their families.
Though there are five official remittance agencies here for Bangladeshis, they prefer the hundi's rates.
At this money market, the hundis and their runners broadcast their rates. A worker picks his hundi, tells him who the money should go to and his address, and hands over the cash.
The hundi records the details in a notebook, sealing the deal with a handshake and a promise.
"They offer attractive rates," said Mr Ripon Miah, 25, a cleaner who has used a hundi since 1997.
Where an official agency may offer 28 taka for S$1, hundis can offer 29 taka or more, because, unlike the agencies, they can avoid being taxed in Bangladesh.
Official agencies first exchange Singapore money for US dollars, then for taka in Bangladesh. They levy an administrative fee; the hundis do not.
The hundi's way: Collect money, buy electronics goods or gold here to sell back home. Deliver the promised sum. Make a tidy profit.
"They carry the goods in their luggage, so they can say it's for their own use," said a Bangladeshi High Commission spokesman.
They jet in on tourist visas and go home laden. They stand out in the clusters, carrying cellular phones and wearing long-sleeved shirts.
An "average" operator may take $30,000 each trip since a worker usually sends home about $400 each time.
Some workers act as runners for the hundis. This led the Singapore Contractors Association to remind its members in a circular in April - "on police advice" it said - that such work-permit holders violate the Foreign Workers Act.
It said: "Recently, many remitters who remit money on behalf of foreign workers, have become victims of snatch thefts, robberies and even murder."
HOODWINKED
YET it could give no figures on workers caught moonlighting in this way, or cite any report of a foreign worker getting cheated.
Nor could the Manpower Ministry supply such figures. The large sums they carry make this a risky business for hundis, runners and clients alike because they are such tempting targets.
Between January and June, there were six robberies involving people who visited banks or money-changers. The police would not say if foreigners were involved.
On June 27, Bangladeshi worker Rony Rahman, 28, was robbed of $20,000, had three fingers on his right hand chopped off and three on his left were almost severed.
He was waylaid by six men with parangs while taking money to a remittance agency. He was fortunate they did not find the other $20,000 he had kept in another pocket.
On May 23, Mr Mohamed Matin, 36, was robbed of about $10,000 and slashed with a chopper.
Workers have been known to beat up a hundi if they think he has cheated them.
So the hundi must show proof of delivery: perhaps a strip of paper, bearing the name and signature of the person in Bangladesh.
Like some, Mr Miah, calls home to double-check. "When I see my father's signature, I telephone to confirm he has got the money." He was confident he would not be bilked because he knows where his hundi lives.
"If anything wrong, I can find him at his house in Bangladesh," he said.
FIGHTS AND CHEATS
OTHERS are not so lucky.
A 28-year-old man, who gave his name only as Robbi, said it worked the first time, but the $500 he sent the second time never got to his parents, and he could not track the hundi down.
"You work so hard, then they just take your money and run. I don't want to trust them again," he said. He now uses an official agency. Fights often break out when workers find that a hundi has not done the job.
Mr Munurul Islam recalled that once, several of his friends helped someone who had been cheated to find his hundi, who denied ever receiving the money.
A fight broke out and the hundi's bodyguards pulled out knives. They fled when the police arrived.
Sometimes, workers may complain to their High Commission, but little can be done since there is no receipt or documentation that money has changed hands.
The Registry of Companies and Businesses said that running an unlicensed hundi business is an offence under Section 5 of the Business Registration Act. Offenders can be jailed up to six months or fined up to $1,000, or both.
The high commission advises workers to remit money through official agencies. It also plans to tell Bangladeshi workers before they come here about the dangers of using a hundi. Meanwhile, this evening, the unofficial money market goes on.
Straits Times, 1 August 1999
EVERY Sunday evening, thousands of dollars change hands in a carpark and a field near Serangoon Plaza.
As evening shadows deepen, the handful of foreign workers swells to thousands and small clusters form around each hundi man. Hundi means "remittance" in Bengali.
People who live and work in Little India told The Sunday Times team it was on dangerous ground looking into the hundi business. "They are fearsome men," one said of the hundi and their bodyguards. As we approached a hundi, his burly phalanx of protectors tightened. A man demanded coarsely: "What you want?" He gesticulated at the team and shouted something in Bengali.
As four or five bodyguards closed in, The Sunday Times team sought the relative safety of Serangoon Plaza.
ATTRACTIVE RATES
THE hundi is the Bangladeshis' link to home, the channel through which they send money to their families.
Though there are five official remittance agencies here for Bangladeshis, they prefer the hundi's rates.
At this money market, the hundis and their runners broadcast their rates. A worker picks his hundi, tells him who the money should go to and his address, and hands over the cash.
The hundi records the details in a notebook, sealing the deal with a handshake and a promise.
"They offer attractive rates," said Mr Ripon Miah, 25, a cleaner who has used a hundi since 1997.
Where an official agency may offer 28 taka for S$1, hundis can offer 29 taka or more, because, unlike the agencies, they can avoid being taxed in Bangladesh.
Official agencies first exchange Singapore money for US dollars, then for taka in Bangladesh. They levy an administrative fee; the hundis do not.
The hundi's way: Collect money, buy electronics goods or gold here to sell back home. Deliver the promised sum. Make a tidy profit.
"They carry the goods in their luggage, so they can say it's for their own use," said a Bangladeshi High Commission spokesman.
They jet in on tourist visas and go home laden. They stand out in the clusters, carrying cellular phones and wearing long-sleeved shirts.
An "average" operator may take $30,000 each trip since a worker usually sends home about $400 each time.
Some workers act as runners for the hundis. This led the Singapore Contractors Association to remind its members in a circular in April - "on police advice" it said - that such work-permit holders violate the Foreign Workers Act.
It said: "Recently, many remitters who remit money on behalf of foreign workers, have become victims of snatch thefts, robberies and even murder."
HOODWINKED
YET it could give no figures on workers caught moonlighting in this way, or cite any report of a foreign worker getting cheated.
Nor could the Manpower Ministry supply such figures. The large sums they carry make this a risky business for hundis, runners and clients alike because they are such tempting targets.
Between January and June, there were six robberies involving people who visited banks or money-changers. The police would not say if foreigners were involved.
On June 27, Bangladeshi worker Rony Rahman, 28, was robbed of $20,000, had three fingers on his right hand chopped off and three on his left were almost severed.
He was waylaid by six men with parangs while taking money to a remittance agency. He was fortunate they did not find the other $20,000 he had kept in another pocket.
On May 23, Mr Mohamed Matin, 36, was robbed of about $10,000 and slashed with a chopper.
Workers have been known to beat up a hundi if they think he has cheated them.
So the hundi must show proof of delivery: perhaps a strip of paper, bearing the name and signature of the person in Bangladesh.
Like some, Mr Miah, calls home to double-check. "When I see my father's signature, I telephone to confirm he has got the money." He was confident he would not be bilked because he knows where his hundi lives.
"If anything wrong, I can find him at his house in Bangladesh," he said.
FIGHTS AND CHEATS
OTHERS are not so lucky.
A 28-year-old man, who gave his name only as Robbi, said it worked the first time, but the $500 he sent the second time never got to his parents, and he could not track the hundi down.
"You work so hard, then they just take your money and run. I don't want to trust them again," he said. He now uses an official agency. Fights often break out when workers find that a hundi has not done the job.
Mr Munurul Islam recalled that once, several of his friends helped someone who had been cheated to find his hundi, who denied ever receiving the money.
A fight broke out and the hundi's bodyguards pulled out knives. They fled when the police arrived.
Sometimes, workers may complain to their High Commission, but little can be done since there is no receipt or documentation that money has changed hands.
The Registry of Companies and Businesses said that running an unlicensed hundi business is an offence under Section 5 of the Business Registration Act. Offenders can be jailed up to six months or fined up to $1,000, or both.
The high commission advises workers to remit money through official agencies. It also plans to tell Bangladeshi workers before they come here about the dangers of using a hundi. Meanwhile, this evening, the unofficial money market goes on.
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