Hyderabad: Millions of young Indians are spending the best years of their lives in preparing for competitive exams in anticipation of getting a government job, according to a research study by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES).
However, there are not that many jobs as the country’s unemployment rate is at a 45-year-high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18, according to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) periodic labour force survey (PLFS).
Two key findings of the CES survey report are that 93 per cent of the respondents are unemployed and almost all of them have to depend fully on their families for financial support.
Also, 71 per cent of respondents were of the opinion that an adequate number of jobs were not created under the present government.
Many students said they were tired of making innumerable attempts at getting government posts, without any result.
They are also fed up with the court cases and the corruption that getting a government job entails.
Kevin Keerthi Kumar, a biotechnology graduate, made his first attempt at a government exam in 2011 for the job of constable. Later, he started attending coaching classes from 2016 for Group II exams. The final results are still pending due to a court case.
Due to controversies and court cases, he said, more than half of the results are pending and aspirants are compelled to wait for ages.
“Recently, I have also given the SI test, but they have rejected several applications, including mine, stating that we are short of a few millimetres (in height). However, I qualified in the same height category last time when I took the test. How could I become shorter I don’t understand. When aspirants like me went on protest condemning the same, all we were left to bare is lathi charges.”
There are numerous coaching institutes in and around Ameerpet for various Central and state government exams making it a big business built on the hopes of students.
The need for a job is so high that it doesn’t matter which job, as long as one gets into some government job.
This is the reason we are seeing PhD graduates applying for a peon’s job, said a government employee. The survey also revealed that the perception of jobs in the private sector is dominantly negative. Many respondents who previously worked in the private sector reported their working conditions to be undesirable, exploitative and wages below par.
“After a diploma from a polytechnic, I went off to Chennai to work in a plant. There were 20-25 of us who went together,” said Kishore from Allahabad. “But having reached, we found the conditions were not what we had been told. It required us to do 12 hour shifts for too less a salary.” There is little faith in the genuineness of the selection and recruitment process because of the lack of transparency, major scams and regular leaks, the report says.
