The Great Indian Engineering Scam: A Tale of Herd Mentality, a Broken System, and H-1B Exploitation

Engineering in India is no longer a career choice; it’s a cultural cliché. Parents push their children into it, students reluctantly follow the herd, and colleges churn out graduates en masse, often with little regard for quality or relevance. What was once a respected profession has now become a conveyor belt of mediocrity, an elaborate scam where dreams are sold but rarely fulfilled.

Herd Mentality: The Root of the Problem

In India, engineering is not about passion; it’s about conformity. Parents equate an engineering degree with stability, social prestige, and a good marriage prospect. It doesn’t matter if the child dreams of being an artist, writer, or entrepreneur. The mantra is simple: “Do engineering first, figure out life later.”

This herd mentality has led to an oversupply of engineers. India produces over a million engineering graduates every year, but the demand for them in core engineering sectors is abysmally low. The result? Thousands of young engineers either take up unrelated jobs or join the ranks of the unemployed.

The H-1B Obsession: Exporting Mediocrity

For many Indian engineers, the ultimate dream isn’t to build something extraordinary but to secure an H-1B visa and move to the United States. The obsession with going abroad has fueled a culture where the goal isn’t learning or innovation but escaping the country.

Ironically, many who return from the US with the “H-1B tag” come back with inflated expectations. Despite having limited practical skills or industry contributions, they demand salaries in the range of ₹2-3 lakhs per month simply because they’ve worked abroad. Employers, wary of such entitlement, are often reluctant to hire them, creating a cycle of disillusionment.

The Role of Corporates: Exploiting Engineering Degrees and H-1B Visas

Adding fuel to the fire is the corporate world, which has turned the engineering degree and the H-1B visa into tools of exploitation.

• The Engineering Degree as a Ticket: Corporates have reduced the engineering degree to a mere eligibility criterion, often hiring graduates without evaluating their actual skills. The focus is not on nurturing talent but on filling seats and reducing costs.
• H-1B Visa Abuse: Large corporations in India and abroad have turned the H-1B visa into a cost-cutting mechanism. By hiring Indian engineers on H-1B visas, they can pay lower wages compared to local talent in the US. This exploitation perpetuates a cycle where Indian engineers are encouraged to chase foreign jobs, often at the expense of their dignity and long-term growth.
• Bulk Hiring, Bulk Rejection: Companies hire thousands of engineers in bulk during campus placements, only to lay off or underutilize them later. This practice inflates the promise of engineering as a stable career while masking the precarious reality.

A Curriculum Stuck in the Past

Indian engineering colleges are trapped in a time warp. The curriculum, designed decades ago, is woefully outdated and irrelevant to the demands of the modern world.

• No Practical Skills: Labs are underfunded, outdated, or non-existent. Students graduate with theoretical knowledge but have no idea how to apply it in real-world scenarios.
• IT Overdependence: Regardless of their specialization, most engineering graduates end up in IT. Whether they studied civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering, the lack of opportunities in their fields pushes them toward software jobs. This dependency has made the system a one-size-fits-all farce.
• Zero Industry Alignment: Emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, robotics, and renewable energy remain peripheral topics, if they’re covered at all. Colleges produce graduates for industries that no longer exist, leaving students ill-prepared for the future.

Engineering Colleges: Factories of Exploitation

The proliferation of engineering colleges in India has turned education into a profit-driven industry. Private institutions mushroom across the country, promising bright futures but delivering substandard education.

• Sky-High Fees: Students and their families invest lakhs of rupees into these colleges, hoping for a decent job at the end. For many, the ROI is dismal, as they end up in low-paying, non-engineering roles or worse — unemployed.
• Fake Placements: Colleges boast about 100% placement records, but these are often inflated figures, with many graduates placed in low-skill jobs or on contractual roles.
• Degree Mills: Institutions churn out degrees without focusing on learning. Exams are easily passed, often through rote memorization or mass copying, reducing the degree to a mere piece of paper.

The Fallout: Engineers Without Engineering

The result of this broken system is an entire generation of “engineers” who don’t engineer. They flood non-engineering industries, diluting the quality of the workforce and further perpetuating the myth that “engineering teaches you everything.”

This diversion of talent has severe implications for the nation:

• Infrastructure Stagnation: While India needs skilled civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers to build its infrastructure, those fields remain understaffed.
• Brain Drain: The best minds often leave the country, seeking opportunities abroad where their skills are valued.
• Entitlement Culture: Engineers returning from abroad or from prestigious Indian institutions often expect high-paying jobs without commensurate effort or output, further skewing the job market.
• Stunted Domestic Innovation: With corporates exploiting engineering talent for low-cost labor abroad, India’s potential for innovation and self-reliance remains unrealized.

Is Engineering in India a Scam?

When viewed in totality, the Indian engineering education system feels less like an institution of learning and more like a well-oiled scam. It preys on societal fears and parental aspirations, funnels students into outdated curricula, and leaves them to fend for themselves in an unforgiving job market.

The Way Forward: Breaking the Scam

To fix this broken system, India must take bold steps:

1. Redefine Success: Parents and students need to move away from the notion that engineering is the only viable career option. Let passion, not prestige, guide career choices.
2. Modernize the Curriculum: Colleges must overhaul their programs to include emerging technologies and practical learning. Industry collaboration should be prioritized.
3. Shut Down Substandard Colleges: Regulatory bodies must weed out degree mills that offer little more than empty promises.
4. Promote Alternate Pathways: Vocational training, liberal arts, and entrepreneurship should be encouraged as viable career paths, reducing the unhealthy fixation on engineering.
5. Recalibrate Expectations: Both employers and employees need to bridge the gap between skills and salaries. Realistic appraisals, rather than entitlement, should guide job prospects.
6. Corporate Accountability: Companies must stop exploiting H-1B visas as cost-cutting tools and instead focus on nurturing real talent.

Thoughts

Indian engineering has become a tragic joke — a system that promises the world but delivers disillusionment. It’s time to stop glorifying the “engineering degree” and start valuing actual skills, creativity, and passion. Until then, the Great Indian Engineering Scam will continue to churn out more graduates who do everything but engineering, leaving the country to pay the price for its misplaced priorities.