Lucknow: While the Narendra Modi government harps on Skill Development and Digital India schemes, many youngsters including some highly qualified are struggling to find a suitable job. In one such incident 23 lakh people have applied for 368 posts of peon in Uttar Pradesh.
The applicants include graduates, postgraduates and even PhD holders for the job in the Uttar Pradesh government secretariat.
UP Secretariat Administration Department Secretary Prabhat Mittal tasked with the entire appointment process has been left shocked and stunned by the sheer volume of applications. It would take more than three years to interview candidates, he says.
The response has been a record of sorts, with more than 1,50,000 applications sent in by graduates and 24,969 by postgraduates. There were also more than 250 doctorates among the applicants, officials said.
The minimum qualifications for a peon are school education and bicycle-riding skills and the job has a monthly salary of about Rs 16,000.
The desperate scramble for jobs poses a challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power in 2014 with a mandate to provide jobs and economic growth.
Of the total of 368 posts, 268 are for general candidates and the rest for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other reserved categories in the age group of 18-40 years. “When we categorised the applications vis-a-vis a qualification, we were surprised to find that 255 doctorates have applied for the job," said a senior official of the secretariat administration.
Most of the applications – more than 11.21 lakh – came from those who had passed out of high school or the equivalent, while 53,426 applicants had only passed Class five. More than 7.5 lakh candidates had passed Class 12.
A total of 1,405 candidates were in the “others” category, while 2,681 were unclassified.
The number of applications for the government jobs is 16 times the level in 2006, the last time the Uttar Pradesh government recruited for similar jobs.
India's vast bureaucracy is seen as an attractive place to work because it is difficult to fire employees.
Suresh Verma, a graduate, said he applied because "there is so much security" in a low-paying government job compared to the risk of being laid off in the private sector.
In August 2015, the Chhattisgarh state government cancelled plans to fill a handful of government jobs after being flooded with 75,000 applications.
Comments
0 comment