MORE COMPLAINTS AGAINST AIESEC CHANDIGARH!

The information below was taken the following Blog:

http://aiesec-chandigarh.blogspot.com

AIESEC Chandigarh

I wanted to publish this blog for long long loooong time. I have written the blog once, but I have faced a certain problems with AIESEC Chandigarh after that, so I have rather decided to delete it.
Moreover it was too long not having much structure and mentioning too many unnecessary details.

1. Before I write anything - I have to mention that most AIESECers I have met ( like 90% of them) are great people and my friends ( hopefully will still be even after reading this blog ;-). They are friendly, nice, talkative and usually do try to help you. I am talking both about AIESEC Chandigarh as well as AIESEC Slovakia.
2. I would like to mention that my reasons behind this blog are simply to encourage AIESEC Chandigarh to improve. I do not want to put them down nor to criticize them. However, I do think that AIESEC Chandigarh does deserve some bad publicity because of organization and the whole functioning of AIESEC in Chandigarh and as I have heard in other parts of India as well ( could be also in Europe or anywhere else, but for that I have neither experience nor any kind of first hand knowledge from someone else)
3. Very important is to mention that I was not the only one having a bad experience. You can explore another blog written by other interns that came to Chandigarh for their internship. Simply follow the link and read other people' experiences - http://aiesecchandigarh.blogspot.com/
4. I still think that AIESEC is a great project and I am sure they will continue in their activities and will bring many benefits to all participants. ( however, we should not be naive and probably there would be also negative experience)

Ok, not lets get to the point.

Since I do not want to write an essay - I will go directly towards things that I see as a "bad service" and even consider AIESEC as not very serious organization. Lets explore reasons behind it. A first few reasons I have not personally ( luckily) experienced but have seen other interns living in not very good conditions as well as having the chance to hear their complaints out. One of the reasons why AIESEC Chandigarh did improve was that very negative blog mentioned above. Or at least it seems quite reasonable motive as the blog did get quite a lot of attention and many people were reading it from all around the world. I have to confirm that most complaints in that blog are 100% true and justified and are a sad reality even today. Those complaints would be...

Stacking too many people into a house like chicken

This part is funny. I was lucky enough and I had only one roommate. Others were not so lucky. Later I have decided to move into a house that you can't even compare to intern houses. This house was found by some very angry and extremely dissatisfied interns with AIESEC Chandigarh. They were the ones after all that even wrote the blog I have mentioned above in the 3rd numbering. I would move into that house and only later realized how smart that was. Previously I thought I do not necessarily need to move and I have done so only since my girlfriend was coming over to do an internship as well. Even she has her story and blog which I will soon paste. Just to give you an idea I will put a picture that even one intern did call "refugee camp" when posting on his facebook account. Have a look yourself

Now so that you understand... they would put lets say 12people into a 3rooms apartment. Just to demonstrate my point, lets have a look at following example. Those angry and extremely dissatisfied interns with AIESEC Chandigarh found a house for 23 000,- Rs (400eur). It would include internet, rent, water, electricity, maid that cleans the house, etc. There is NO COMPARISON between most intern houses that I have seen and the house where I live with a few other interns. We pay 23 000,- Rs.

Imagine 12 x interns paying 4000 Rs,- ( which was normal rent). 12 x 4000 = 48 000 Rs,-

Imagine they would be paying lets say 23 000 Rs,- like us ( and remember those two places are incomparable when it comes to comfort, quality and basic necessities).

That would make a profit of 48 000,- Rs 23 000,- = 25 000,- Rs.

So, for me AIESEC Chandigarh uses interns as source of their profit or in other words as milking cows. That I consider anything but not serious especially having the opportunity to live in such a "luxurious" place, not having any privacy.

Not providing even basic necessities

As I have mentioned already above, basic things such as fridge, water filter or cooker would sometimes be missing in the house. You would find yourself trying to reach AIESECer's mobiles trying to get them bring you those thing so that you can cook, drink water and store your food in cold fridge so that you do not have to throw them away next day.

Not being able to run AIESEC Chandigarh properly

The reason behind is that AIESEC Chandigarh would simply match ( the process of finding interns for companies) too many interns while not having enough resources to handle all that work. For each intern you have to plan someone to come and pick them up to take them to their home, to help them if needed with Indian bureaucracy such as registration, etc. Thus some interns would be left to help themselves on their own.

In my case, person taking care of our house - Ayush - would take me to some police station where I thought got myself registered. I do remember that he told me it's not registration but that it is still important. Later when I went to get myself registered, it was already too later ( cause you have to get registered within 2weeks) and previous application where I had to submit 7copies of my passport and my visa together with 7photographs was totally useless. It was a waste of time trying to explain to policeman at Foreign Registration Office ( later only as F.R.O.) that I have done some kind of application already - however - totally useless. I still had to pay a fine of 30 US $, which nobody will pay for me. If AIESEC Chandigarh is not responsible for my registration and I need registration instead of some useless application - THEY SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME and i would have done it myself. All i needed was information that it's not they business and that just the address of F.R.O and things would have been easier for both of us!

Not being able to provide any help

This happened to my girlfriend. It's actually very very veeeery funny story. She went to F.D.O. to get herself registered. Person sitting there as you would assume would speak English. He did not! After 2sentences he switched to hindi with a big smile. He took out some papers covered with dust and wrote out things that she needs for registration as well as some other new 6things that even he could not explain! What a ridiculous system. You tell someone to get you something which even you yourself have no idea what that actually is.

The person that was assigned to come and help us was to no use even though he spoke hindi. I guess cause the policeman was totally useless in the first place. In the end AIESECer was quite useless there and didn't help at all as he had no knowledge of how things are actually done. Later it was thanks to my girlfriend's boss that she got herself registered. You ask me how? The boss could not understand the stupidity behind that policemen requests and list of things that even he could not explain. Thus they printed list of things that a foreigner needs for registration from official F.D.O.'s website and showed it to that genius. Suddenly she did not need anything of what he previously claimed is crucial. Suddenly it was ok and she could hand him over copies of her passport, visa, photos and electricity bill of house where she was staying... Indian bureaucracy, don't ask me why. I had a talk with one Indian friend and I was just shocked staring with my jaw dropped how complex and stupid it actually is when he was telling me various stories from the past.

Various other cases

Often AIESECers would come to our house to have a friendly chat. However, later I felt like one AIESECer would actually be almost living in our house cause there was this sexi canadian intern which he found attractive and thought he might give it a try ( i guess... or maybe he just liked her company... who wouldn't ;-)

Once there were even three guys coming to our house just because they had stored a bottle of vodka in our fridge and they would come to our house to consume it. I got quite angry and asked what the hell does that mean. They were acting as if it was their house spending quite a lot of time there. Later I found out that one of the guys had problems with his parents, thus he needed some kind of shelter for relief and some peace. If you needed something urgently, suddenly all AIESECers would be busy and there was no-one to help you. Especially if there was some serious problem.

My personal experience

Most disappointing was my personal experience with AIESEC's help. I was working in LEO Designs & Packaging company. I have been given some work, however, the work could not be really measured as it was research and ... to give you an example i will tell you what was I supposed to do. I was supposed to contact their competition in India as well as Europe, find out at what prices they sell their products as well as what policies, discounts, etc they have. Later to try stealing their competition's clients by offering them better prices, discounts, etc. This was pretty much everything. I have done it, but as you can see, it's not a very interesting as well as not having much diversity. I would be sending them daily reports. Three things happened during my stay. I was told by my boss Varun that other guy Kunal will be in charge. Later Kunal told me that even he is busy and that third guy - Sumeet - will take over and give me necessary guidance. I did not receive much feedback during my internship. I later found out there was a complaint about me from an AIESECer. Thus, obviously i was angry. First of all, there was nothing in particular that they would complain about. I was just told there was a complaint. Secondly I saw no reason for complaining as I have done things I was required and I did not receive any feedback ( or not much). So I wrote an email to all those 3 guys and I DID put 2 AIESECers that I considered competent on copy ( as well as my HR manager) - Tushar Singh and Elisha Thapar. I have received NO feedback to my email from neither my bosses nor AIESECers. I have also send another email asking what in particular have they complained about or what am I actually doing wrong?!

NO REPLY!

I have send later a few more emails. No reply. I would keep on sending my daily reports together with some ideas and so on - no reply. Later just to prove how bad it was - a indian employee - was hired to help me do the work. Guess what! He wanted to leave the company after two weeks. During my stay most of the people left the company as they were highly dissatisfied with their working conditions and i am not surprised. I didn't care as after 6months I would be gone. Now, even my HR manager left the company even though my boss raised her salary ( or at least that is what he claimed he would do). Many other employees left and some would express their dissatisfaction quite explicitly - they were females ( usually females and especially in India are very polied). To make a long story short - I have noticed that most Indians, especially those in the north do not like confrontations and thus often rather choose to be quiet and not say anything ( even bosses).

One day I have been fired without any notice.

What was best about it all was that since I needed a new internship and I had proofs that it was not my fault - email documentation, my colleagues that would willingly speak to AIESECers, my HR manager, my colleague that was doing the same thing as me and most of all Elisha and Tushar even received my emails and did not contact me to ask for further details about what is going on. Best part is that I needed a new internship. I was angry and wrote blog about AIESEC Chandigarh as well as about the company I used to work for. Suddenly they would require me to pay a new EP form which is simply a form that is created in their database with a few clicks, moreover they refused to find me internship in Chandigarh and rather told me they would find me internship in some other city in India. Later I found out that the reason behind was my blog which I had to delete. Not to mention that Vice president and some other people from AIESEC Slovakia had a call with people from AIESEC Chandigarh and tried to force them to find me a new internship.

Well, I deleted the blog and thought that I would rather go traveling than having to experience another "awesome" AIESEC internship. There are many other very bad experiences with internships that I will list in my next posting.

Lastly what sometimes made me angry was AIESEC Chandigarh's attitude when for example that useless guy that went to help us with registration would say "many interns are happy ... bla bla bla".

Yes, many interns are happy and many interns are NOT. Those traveling to India are already adventurous enough to come to India and some are simply a bit naive not knowing what to expect. I mean, no offence, but how many people from Europe want to go to India for internship? Some of my friends' reaction when I have told them that I am goint to India was "are you nuts?". I still think that India is great and I love the people, culture and everything that comes with it. I do not have problem with dirt, bad smell nor crowded buses. I love the experience, BUT ... it's not thanks to AIESECers but thanks to people around me. AIESECers after all are good friends and nice people too, so... ok... thanks to them as well. :-)

I was often wondering if i would have gone to India for internship if I knew what awaits me. I often thought "yes, i would go anyway" because i felt that those first few months gave me enough time to adapt to India and thus found traveling in India later as a piece of cake ;-) Ok, to be honest, even now it is not really a piece of cake, but almost...

Unfortunately If I knew what awaits me, I wouldn't have come to India. I would have gone to Austria for internship that I almost got accepted for where I might have learned German that would be very useful in my future career. I would have gone only for traveling to India and would have saved a lot of money.

The only reason why I wanted to go for an internship through AIESEC was to make my parents happy. If I would have told them "i am going to India to travel", they wouldn't really approve and wouldn't be happy as they would be worried about my safety and so on which any normal parent would be ( especially having that indian pakistani disputes). They would not just not approve, they would be quite angry ... i think...

AIESEC internship would seem like a good reason - working abroad, experiencing a new culture in a safe way.

Next time I will know :-)

P.S: India is still a nice place to travel with people with big hearts, however, I laught when someone would tell me "see, thanks to AIESEC"

Complaint Letter #9 about AIESEC Kolkata!

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to outline my concerns about AIESEC Kolkata and in particular my experience as an AIESEC development intern from 2 January 2010 to the 13 February 2010.

I initially had communication difficulties with my AIESEC contacts from Kolkata. My TN manager did not respond to several of my emails before I left New Zealand regarding an airport pick-up, so I had to email several other AIESEC Kolkata committee members. Finally the AIESEC Kolkata committee president responded to say that someone would be at the airport to meet me but unfortunately not until I was already in transit in Singapore. When I arrived in Kolkata, there was a taxi driver with my name waiting for me. He duly took me to the intern apartment, but also grossly overcharged me.

The intern apartment was sub-standard. There was no hot water, no beds (only thin mattresses on the concrete floor), all the toilets were badly leaking, and it was filthy. Attempts to rectify these issues with AIESEC Kolkata were futile. We also had on-going problems with our apartment locks, which compromised our security. On several occasions AIESEC Kolkata refused to pay for locksmith services, instead insisting that the interns were obliged to pay for apartment maintenance.

A few days after I arrived in Kolkata, my TN manager informed me that my internship had fallen through, and that there was no work organised for me. He said that he would make an effort to find me another internship, but a few weeks passed and nothing eventuated. I ended up approaching another NGO myself to organise my own volunteering experience.

I met only a couple of AIESEC Kolkata members during my 6-week stay there. There was no orientation on arrival to Kolkata and no interns were invited to take part in any AIESEC Kolkata events.

At least 3 or 4 other foreign interns during my stay returned to their home countries within a couple of days of arriving in Kolkata, and many more returned weeks early because the conditions and jobs did not match those promised in the TN contract.

I have contacted my local AIESEC committee and requested that they cease to send interns to AIESEC Kolkata, so long as they continue to provide such a poor service. I urge you to ensure that no future AIESEC interns in Kolkata have similar negative experiences to mine.

Regards,

E.M.

Complaint Letter #9 about AIESEC Kolkata!

To AIESEC in India and International,

My name is C. L., MCVPX of AIESEC in Spain. I am writing to you in order to express my anger and my disappointment towards AIESEC in India. ?I want to communicate to you the things that are happening right now and have been happening in the LCs of AIESEC in India. I would also like to ask for action as my EPs and I have been met with apathy from the LC level. I don?t want you to take this e-mail as another complaint, but to realize the damage we are doing to the organization and build an action plan.

Since I assumed my role as MC we have sent 4 EPs to India and all of them have experienced the same type of problems. If corrective measures aren?t taken, I will strongly discourage exchange with India. Although this seems harsh, we are promoting an experience and I feel that sending Spanish EPs to India does not live up to the quality promoted.

I will mention all the problems that need to be changed. All of this information is supported by real cases (which are in the annex):

-?????? Quality of the TNs: Not all the TNs are challenging, as we promise the internships with AIESEC are. The worst is when TNs change the job descriptions to where the EPs end up as telemarketers. The MC is the final responsible for auditing the forms. Numbers are important, but also quality.

-?????? Airport: LC members did not pick up any of the interns in the airport, which proves to be a larger problem in India because of the language barrier (as the EPs cannot communicate with locals at all).

-?????? Accommodation: Interns are living in horrible conditions, conditions that are not compliant with the quality standards outlined by AIESEC International, and conditions that contradict any Outgoing Preparation Seminar. The houses for Interns are like refugees camps, more than eight interns are living in two bedroom houses, and they need to pay the same amount of money if they sleep in a room or in the middle of the kitchen. Both my EPs and my outrage grew when we discovered that the LCs are making a profit of this situation, earning 200 to 300 Euros per month.

-?????? AIESEC Experience: the point of doing an Internship with AIESEC and not with any other organization or university is to live the complete experience. ?I am very doubtful if the interns are leaving a life changing AIESEC experience especially when the interns have little to no contact with the LC members ? only seeing them once a month when they are there to collect the rent.

This is not meant to smear the name of AIESEC or AIESEC in India, but rather a call for action. The blatant disregard for quality from some of the LCs and LC members is seriously hindering the quality of the experience for 4 of our EPs. I really hope that you can get back with us with some sort of plan of action in order to control this situation and increase the quality of internships in you country. We are only asking that the AIESECers act like AIESECers.

Attached you will find all the testimonies of the Interns. Some of them are in Spanish, but I know that AI has people that can help to read them all. As well, the English ones are sufficient for AIESEC India to see the problems and hopefully do something about it???

These are the TNs and the LCs where the Interns are experiencing problems:

TN-In-IN-CA-2009-2193 - AIESEC KOLKATA

TN-In-IN-CA-2009-2197 - AIESEC KOLKATA

Regards

C.L.

MCVPX '09-'10

AIESEC in Spain

Complaint Letter #8 about AIESEC Kolkata!

Complaint Letter about AIESEC Kolkata

To whom it may concern,

My name is K. B., an EP from LC SPUEF in Russia. From last December to this February, I was doing a Development Traineeship in Kolkata, India with the TN ID of TN-In-IN-CA-2009-2271 and my EP ID of EP-In-CN-TH-2009-1539. This letter is to express my dissatisfaction and complaint about AIESEC Kolkata.

First, I’m very dissatisfied with the fact that no one met me at the airport, however I’ve emailed my TN-manager Rajalakshmi Rajagopal twice about the data and time of my arrival asking her or anyone else from AIESEC to meet me at the airport. When I called Rajalakshmi she was surprised to hear I’m in Kolkata. Finally she ordered a taxi, but I had to pay for it Rs. 500 which was pretty unexpected. The taxi took me to the guest house where I’ve stayed on my own for three days. I also had to pay for this accommodation although I was on a DT and I had to get a free accommodation. AIESEC Kolkata promised me a refund of Rs. 1500 but they’ve never done it.

On the other hand, the accommodation in Kolkata for us is really unacceptable. There were always problems with the toilet, water supply and the door lock. Once when the lock was broken the AIESEC Kolkata sent a man to repair it. It had been done but the man and one of the AIESECers called Rahul were forcing me to pay Rs. 250. I’ve told them that it was their duty to provide the conditions for us. We were arguing for a long time although I had a high fever. One of the apartments was also for sale so there were people entering the flat all the time. In my opinion, it was a serious interruption in our privacy.

Then, we haven’t been given any guidance or useful instructions about living in the apartment. Sometimes the information was false. For example, I’ve asked my TN manager whether I need to take my bedclothes or they were going to be provided. She told me that they would be provided but indeed I had to buy bedclothes and even a blanket when I came to Kolkata. Facilities for cooking also were not provided.

Finally, it seems to be that members of AIESEC Kolkata are not really aware of their interns, their conditions, activities and health. They could organize neither leisure nor work for the interns. For example, it took me one week to start my job. Most of the DTs had no jobs at all. I was not an exception however I was lucky to find a job by myself. The members of AIESEC Kolkata are totally irresponsible.

I do hope someone in AIESEC International can understand what is happening to AIESEC in India and do something to change it. And if there is anything what I can do to help, please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,

K.B.,

Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Complaint Letter #7 about AIESEC Kolkata!

To whomever this may concern,

Good day, my name is J, I am from AIESEC Adelaide, I am suppose to do my internship in Kolkata. However, I have been here for 2 weeks without a job. As a summary, this is what I’ve got to say about AIESEC Kolkata.

False TN form

Nonexistent internships: AIESEC Kolkata has advertise many intern forms on AIESEC.Net, some of them which are already events of the past or organisations that are mismanaged and thus, force to shut down. Here with me are some interns who have been here for almost a month. They have worked not more than 8 times and were told that the organisation doesn’t need them anymore. In my case, the organisation that I was suppose to help out with had their event on the day I arrived, thus, they didn’t need any more helpers. They didn’t tell me anything about the event or when it was held, all they told me was that I was accepted for the project although that position was no more vacant on my arrival date.

“Attractive” TN forms: On AIESEC. Net, TN forms published description of the job and the actual job is totally different. The descriptions of the jobs are really attractive and it sounds challenging, however, the actual job requires you to work no more than 2 hours a day and to do something different from the actual purpose of an intern being here. For example, an intern here named Tsiago Rosa (Sao Paolo, Brazil) was suppose to help out with the documentation and PR of New Light organisation, however, when we were there, the organisation seems like they need more teachers to help out with the students. The job description and the actual job are 2 different things.

Disorganised/ Mismanaged

Accommodation: AIESEC Kolkata has 2 run down 2 bedroom apartments to host 16 interns (8 in each apartment). As they have advertise many TN forms (and accepted many interns), they currently lack a place to host all interns. When I came to Kolkata, I had to stay with an AIESEC Kolkata member’s family as I have no place. They kept telling me the “new” place was being cleaned. The next day, an intern from the intern house named Lyesha (Sydney, Australia) came to pick me up, and she told me that I would be staying with them at the intern house for one night. I waited the next few days but no one picked me up. I was sleeping on a mattress belonging to another intern who went travelling. Until the time when she came back a week later, I was still ‘homeless’. Some of us had to share mattresses to accommodate for the new interns who were coming. After a week or so, I got so irritated, and finally I told them that I am not going to remain in ‘transit’, and that I would like to stay with the rest of the interns.

Some other interns also didn’t have a place to stay, AIESEC Kolkata made them stay in some temporary accommodations such as guest houses for a few days. These out of pocket cost are all made by the interns.

Also, on the side note, the accommodation provided is really run down and some interns have to pay for it. The place is dirty, we sleep on mattresses on the ground and lights and bathrooms are not functioning well. It is one of the least welcoming sight for new interns. One extreme example was this Morrocan girl named Binta. The moment I brought her into the apartment, she asked for a phone and called her home country’s AIESEC, requesting for an immediate return. She left the same evening to stay in a hotel. This is not the first case I’ve seen just short of 2 weeks before, a Mauritius girl named Sonam stayed in Kolkata for less than 5 days, then she left. Partly because of culture shock and the fact that AIESEC couldn’t even confirm if she had a job.

Communication: AIESEC Kolkata hardly ever reply to emails. I’ve asked for the preparation pack over and over. I’ve also asked for miscellaneous information but no one replied me. Once when you call, they make empty promises to send the information over, but it never happens.

Transport: AIESEC Kolkata hadn’t arranged to pick up some of the interns from the airport. So some interns were left stranded there.

Preparation pack: No preparation packs were provided to prepare the intern before coming. I’ve seen many interns who face problems when they first arrive. For some interns, this may be the first time they are going overseas, not much information was provided, so they come into Kolkata unprepared for winter.

Cover up excuses

AIESEC Kolkata is notorious for their excuses. Also, they are infamous for fake sympathy (and doing nothing about it) and apologising for all their mistakes and still do nothing about it.

As much as I would want compensation for the time wasted waiting and the money spend coming here (and doing nothing productive), I know it may be a little too late for me to hope and wish for the better if the committee is not doing much. However, I believe that something SHOULD be done to improve the condition, warn future interns or (in a more extreme case, such as Poland) stop any interns from going for an internship in Kolkata. After all that has happened to me and many of the interns here, I hope that this does not happen to any future intern ever again. So I really hope something can be done. Thank you for your time.

Regards,

J

Threats from affiliated AIESEC Chandigarh Members...

ONCE AGAIN I NEED TO HIGHLIGHT...

I loved India, I loved the people, I loved the culture, I loved my experience BUT I was unhappy with my internship through AIESEC Chandigarh. I think that most of the interns who contributed to this blog would also agree with this point. I have nothing bad to say about India as a country so I hope the message is NEVER misconstrued! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there and everyone who knows me, knows it was one of the best times of my life!

If you ACTUALLY read through the blog properly you will see that we are all extremely open minded people who were just trying to improve the conditions for future interns. Therefore now that I have left India it is VERY disappointing to know that we all fought REALLY hard to make a positive difference, and now I hear that conditions have not improved at all. Due to the fact I am still receiving emails from interns, I feel that it is my duty to share their stories on this blog. I have also started receiving emails from other interns from different LC's around India, hence why I have changed the blogs name to the 'AIESEC India Experience!'

I must remind everyone that I met some AMAZING people whilst in India, who I truely believe will be lifelong friends :) Unfortunately I have met a minority of people who are not so kind. It's very devastating, but I have been receiving threats from some affiliated AIESEC Chandigarh members due to this blog. I believe in freedom of speech and therefore will not delete this blog in the hope that it continues to help other interns. Although I am quite alarmed by these threats!

Although many things have been said to me that have not been possible to record, below I have posted a message that was recently sent to me. I have published it in the hope that the threats will stop when the person realizes that everyone in the world can read what they have said.

(THIS MESSAGE IS NOT A REFLECTION OF EVERYONE IN AIESEC CHANDIGARH!)

Thanks for your support.

Yours truly,

Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern

"take it easy girl come on you had one of ur best times in india and you say shit about it!"

"dont contact me or come to india you moreon you are a selfish bitch who does not know what right and wrong some place gives you the best time of ur life and then you say shit about that place to the whole world what r u ask urself and dont worry about me ill be more creepy to you if u show me ur dirty face again"

"now u gono get a messege everyday from me to remind you how much bitch you"

"u think you too coool now see that"

"fuck those interns in ur ass"

"sayyyyyyyyyyyyy somethinggggggggggg now u bitchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"hh"

Complaint Letter #6 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My AIESEC internship in Kolkata was almost non-existent and was nothing close to what had been promised to me in the JD and by members of AIESEC Kolkata before I arrived. The first problem was that AIESEC Kolkata took 12 days before finally taking me to the organisation. In these 12 days, AIESEC kept promising to come but then just would not turn up and gave various excuses for this. Once I was finally taken to the organisation I learnt that I was to work only one and a half hours a day, instead of the 40 hours a week that had been specified on the TN form. The job in the school turned out to be just like babysitting as we weren't expected to do anything imparticular. Before going to India I had communicated a lot with my manager Tanuj who ensured that the job would be teaching English and other core curricular subjects at the school. Many interns were matched to this organisation so there were 4-5 of us at a time in the classroom where we weren't really needed. After about two weeks of working there we contacted a teacher at the school who said we were no longer needed there at all. After this AIESEC failed to find us other suitable internships as the ones they offered were either too far away or inappropriate for the time we had remaining in India. I ended up travelling and then returning to Kolkata to work at Mother Teresa's House, both great experiences but not what I had come to India to do. Due to this internship and the poor reception of AIESEC Kolkata I have lost quite a lot of faith in AIESEC itself.

New Zealand Intern

Complaint Letter #5 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My name is K.G.K. and I am the AIESECer from local committee of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. I underwent an exchange as a development traineeship in Kolkata, India for 5 weeks from 19^th of November until 25^th of Disember 2000. But, there was something wrong occurred when I was doing my exchange. Here, I would like to complaint about AIESEC Kolkata in term of their treatment towards me and my friend for the whole of my exchanging period. Here are the lists of the complaint:

1. There was no one from AIESEC fetched me in Kolkata airport (Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport) in 19^th of November 2009 for the first time for me landed in Kolkata. AIESEC Kolkata only sent a taxi driver who held an A4 paper which it was written by my name. Plus, AIESEC Kolkata didn’t pay to the driver as me had to pay for myself about Rs 550. I was a victim of cheating because the normal price from the airport to my apartment only Rs 350.

2. In case of my assignment as a DT, I have to work under an NGO called Margam. According to the acceptance letter from AIESEC Kolkata, I have to start my assignment from 20^th of November 2009 until 1^st of January 2010. But, since I reached Kolkata for the first time in 19^th of Nevember 2009, I had to wait for 12 days to start my assignment because there was no one from AIESEC Kolkata comes to fetch me to bring me to the Margam office for the first briefing of my assignment. My friends also had the same situations which are Katie and Natalie from New Zealand and Leisha from Australia. We work under Margam.

3. According to the acceptance letter, my assignment is to be a teacher where the NGO will provide for me a personal work space and working time from 9 to 5. But it was instead. There was no personal work space for me, I only need to work from 6:30 pm until 8 pm every week day and my role is was not like a teacher, I was more like a baby sitter.

4. My assignment in Margam School only last for 13 days (2^nd of December 2009 until 15^th of December 2009). Since that day, we were unemployed in Kolkata. It was because the teacher from the school said me and my friend need to stop our job in their school because they already have a formal teacher to teach the formal lesson compare our role in their school only as a volunteer teacher. For this case, there was no action from AIESEC Kolkata.

5. In case of my apartment accommodation, it was totally terrible. The condition was really bad. There was no bedroom basic stuff for me just like pillow, bed and wardrobe. I had 2 washrooms in my apartment but only 1 can be used. 1 of the pipe in the washroom was broken where only the cold water can spill out. So, there was no hot water when I took my daily shower as at the same time it was winter in India. I was freezing. I lived in an apartment with 2 homes. For the first time I reach there, the numbers of interns were 8 including me. But, the number keeps rising every single week where AIESEC Kolkata keeps receiving a few interns and put them in my home. Before I back, the number of interns reached 17 people.

Regards,

Intern from Malaysia

Complaint Letter #4 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My complaints start from the very beginning of my India life, that is, a driver sent by the local AIESEC to pick me and another girl who came with me, cheated us by overcharge. In all we paid 550 Rs for the drive from airport to New Alipur which actually is due to the local AIESEC (Common sense I picked up in the later life in India told me that 550 is so big a scam that I just cannot bear it).

Second, just the minute I stepped into the apartment I was told that my project, Navdhara, had already been suspended. However, the local AIESEC never told me that. I cannot help myself bearing a guesswork in my mind that the local AIESEC used a fake TN form, as a bait,(I’d like to call it like that), to attract EPs in order to get more realized matches, which is used to scale their work performance. Not a long time later, my guesswork seems proved by concrete evidence---more and more Chinese EPs came with their dreaming projects only existing in the past. They are doing “trafficking”, aren’t they? Furthermore, the local AIESEC did little about this situation. Every time they came to our apartment they used the same template to tackle our inquiry about jobs, that is: “Em…I promise you…. but you have to wait….”(I wonder if those people are trained to shuffle off their responsibilities.) But as time passed, nothing happened. Many jobless had no choice but walk around the city to kill their time.

Third, is the living environment. We did not have the basic living utilities and maintenance. For example, incredibly, we did not have beds! If sleeping on the ground was still tolerable by regarding it as exotic experience, then unforgivable are things like: broken stove, broken water heater, broken lights, broken toilets. We are not savages who can live without light, toilet and baths!

I hope someone will take my complaints seriously and give me a satisfactory reply!

Sincerely,

AIESEC China Member

Complaint Letter #3 about AIESEC Kolkata!

First, the accommodation in Kolkata for us is really unacceptable. There were always problems with the toilet, water supply and the door lock. In addition to that, there was no bed in the room so that all the trainees had no choice but to sleep with a mattress on the floor. At the same time, AIESEC Kolkata kept sending new trainees to our flat. They even didn’t care if there were enough room or mattress for us. Because of that, some trainees had to share the mattress and some trainees were sleeping in the living room.

On the other hand, the local AIESEC also didn’t care about trainees’ health. For example, there was a girl from South Korea who once had very serious disease because of the local food or something else. She almost died on her way to hospital. After that, she spent several days in the hospital as Intensive Care Unit but there was nobody from AIESEC Kolkata going to see and take care of her, which made me really angry.

Then, what is the most unbelievable thing that AIESEC Kolkata has done is they are cheating on us. Most of their DT programs have already finished for a long time and they still post these TNs on the AIESEC website. As a result of that, a lot of DTs came to Kolkata and finally found that the project they were supposed to work on never existed. It is same for MTs, too. In my TN job description, it said that there would be a PWC-Global Enterprise Project and we would be trained by people from PWC and finally get the certificate from them. But the truth is there was no Global enterprise project, no training from PWC and of course, no certificate. All of that was a big lie which was used by AIESEC Kolkata to attract more EPs and increase their so-called NUMBERS.

I used to work in Incoming Exchange Department in my LC for one and half years and we never did any of those horrible things to our EPs. What I can say is that in Kolkata, there is no AIESEC spirit at all. I don’t think they really understand the culture of AIESEC and why people join AIESEC. What they care is always numbers, which cannot give any benefit to their members and all the EPs. And if no one can stop them from doing such stupid things in the future, they will just ruin the good reputation and image of whole AIESEC, which costs other AIESECers almost 60 years to build.

I do hope someone in AIESEC International can understand what is happening to AIESEC in India and do something to change it. And if there is anything what I can do to help, please feel free to contact me. Leave a comment at the bottom of this and I will try to get in touch with you.

Regards,

AIESEC China EP

Complaint Letter #2 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My name is D.D.Z., an AIESEC EP from LC SYSU in China. From last January to this February, I was doing a Development Traineeship in Kolkata, India with the TN ID of TN-In-IN-CA-2009-2078 and my EP ID of EP-IN-CN-SY-2009-20. This letter is to express my dissatisfaction and complaint about AIESEC Kolkata.

Firstly, AIESEC Kolkata did a very bad reception. I strongly condemn your attitude. My TN manager didn't ask anyone to pick me up at the airport and refused to tell me the particular address of the trainee house.

Secondly, I think the living condition in Kolkata is terrible. I didn't ask to live in a five star hotel, but I need a clean and tidy place, and I need hot water!!! The train house in New Alipore could not satisfy our basic living requirement.

Finally, I went to Kolkata for one month, but I didn't got any job!!!!! That's why I told other Chinese EP AIESEC Kolkata cheated us! The job on my AN form was about fund raising and working in the NGO. But the real job they gave us was not the same as the job on the AN form!

I think AIESEC Kolkata made me feel upset and I won't believe AIESEC India anymore.

It's not just AIESEC Chandigarh thats the problem! Complaints from Kolkata Interns:

Complaint Letter #1 about AIESEC Kolkata

My co-operation with AIESEC Kolkata has been strongly disappointing from the very beginning and I want to place an official complaint. For a long time together with other Eps we tried to change the situation but without any response from Aiesec Kolkata. we hope that together we can change something or at least warn future EPs about Kolkata and prevent them from coming here.

It started from the very beginning when I read the TN profile. Back then, I did not realize that what all the letter contained were lies. In fact all the TN profiles from AIESEC Kolkata were the same. While applying, I was sure that I applied for a job at PriceWaterHouseCoopers(PWC). Later, when the company called me for an interview, it turned out that I had actually applied for a job at hotel, not PW as stated in the TN profile. I was so surprised, because nothing about working at a hotel was mentioned in the TN. The company itself explained what their job entailed and as co-operation with them was really good; I decided to come. AIESEC did not help at all on that field.

As soon as I was accepted at the beginning of October, I waited for official documents from the company and AIESEC so that I can apply for a visa. AIESEC Kolkata assured me that it should not take longer than a week. In the meantime they asked me to pay 50 dollars for further procedures. I denied.

Then it was only worse because AIESEC has been lying to me and the company. Every week I was hearing a different excuse as to why the documents have not yet arrived which occurred continuously for 2 months. Later, even the company tried to help me and contacted AIESEC personally (actually Shreyansh Batia who was responsible for communication with EPs). Shreyansh assured the company that he had sent the documents on the 4th of November, and that they should arrive shortly. Weeks passed and I still did not receive them. Thousands of excuses were made, for example, "fault of courier". I finally got the documents on 22nd of November with the date of shipment 19th of November. So everything that I had been told before was just a lie. I was writing to AIESEC every day with no response. AIESEC Kolkata answered on average one out of five emails. They did not even answer phone calls from the company.

Unfortunately my problems were not over. No one picked me up from the airport even though I had sent the exact details of my flight. It was only because I knew another EP (thanks to the company) that I managed to somehow find the address. Also, no one took me to the job or offered any other help or support.

The house they've placed all the EPs in is another story. It is hard to even call it a house. There are two apartments - two rooms each and two bathrooms. Only one bathroom works. Sometimes we don't have water and when we have it is cold. We live here with 15 people all together now, but every day people are coming. We sleep on the floor on very thin mattresses, two people on one. But we have no more
mattresses with people still coming. No one is informing us about new arrivals so we cannot prepare for them. There is not a fridge or kitchen at all. No furniture also and no equipment. We sit on the floor on newspapers. There is no way to cook so we eat out. Its dirty and crowded. We don't have any shelves, so we keep everything in our luggage. Sometimes we don't even have electricity. We together and separately complained about this situation, but AIESEC Kolkata did nothing. Sometimes they promise something but never keep it. The only thing they remember is to collect money for rent. Then they will come,but to take EP to work - never.

There was not a single thing that Aiesec Kolkata did right. They never said sorry. I hope at least we can change it for future.

Regards,
  
 
  
Unhappy Kolkata Intern