Vacancies galore as unemployment soars

Over 1.25 crore aspirants for a government job applied for just 35,281 Non-Technical Popular Categories, better known as NTPC Examination posts in the Indian Railways last year. About 7.05 lakh candidates qualified in the Stage-1 test. The irregularities detected in the recruitment led to violence in parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the candidates set coaches on fire and damaged several Railway properties.

The Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had stated earlier this year that there were as many as 2,65,547 posts vacant in the Railways, including that of 2,177 Gazetted Officers.

Two youngsters lost their lives while undergoing the physical tests for recruitment to Madhya Pradesh Police on May 11-12 in Jabalpur. They were among the 30,000-plus aspirants vying for 6,000 posts of constables. Nearly one lakh candidates appeared for 1,200 posts in Jammu and Kashmir Police in March this year. In Faridabad district of Haryana, just 4,027 police personnel manage the entire district against a sanctioned strength of 7,473, which is about 46.11 percent.

The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, is also affected by the malady of huge vacancies. While 400 vacancies exist in the faculty, there are 2,512 vacancies in the para-medical and administrative setup. With thousands thronging the premier institute daily, such large vacancies tend to hinder speedy treatment of patients.

Against a sanctioned strength of 12 lakh soldiers, the Indian Army has over 1,20,000 vacancies which continues to rise at the rate of about 5,000 every month in the Personnel Below Officers Rank category. Due to Covid during the last two years, recruitment could not be held regularly. Sudden intake of lakhs of recruits will adversely impact their training schedules as the training centers are not equipped to train such large number of recruits. This perforce will lead to staggering the batches by which time the age profile is bound to increase and may take up to a year-and-a-half to recruit and train thousands of soldiers.

The situation is no better in the Officers cadre. With 15% shortage of officers, the Army continues to guard and defend our borders. With the Chinese facing us across the borders on the northern and the eastern front, the need to fill up vacancies assumes enormous importance.

While these vacancies continue to adversely affect the efficiency of the organizations, youths run from pillar to post looking for jobs. Suicides due to unemployment and resultant stress, are on the rise. Rajya Sabha was informed during a debate in the 2022-23 Budget session that over 25,000 people resorted to suicide due to unemployment or indebtedness between 2018 and 2020. In 2020 alone, as many as 3,548 youngsters committed suicide due to unemployment.

Ridden by guilt that he was wasting his father’s money, due to unemployment, Namo Narayan Meena, 28, committed suicide in Dholpur in January this year.

A study carried out by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) revealed that unemployment increased with higher educational qualifications. It has also stated that the employment rate has fallen from 43 percent in 2016 to 37 percent in December 2021. The desperation for a job has driven well educated youth to shift from looking for a regular salaried employment to casual wage labour. According to the CMIE data, Haryana has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 34.1 %, followed by Rajasthan and Jharkhand at 27.1% and 17.3%, respectively.

In February this year, Rajya Sabha was informed that over 8.7 lakh posts in the Central Government were lying vacant as on March 31, 2021. Addressing the senior bureaucrats during a 4-hour long meeting in April last, the prime minister urged them to fill up all vacancies in the government on priority. The opposition’s efforts to capitalise on the unemployment issue during the recent Assembly elections prompted him to issue such directions.

The elite Indian Administrative Service too has been functioning with less than its sanctioned strength. Against a sanctioned strength of 6,746, there were only 5,231 officers as on January 1, 2021 -- a shortage of 22.45%. This has led to bitterness in the Centre-State relations with states reluctant to spare officers for central deputation and the Centre being compelled to amend deputation rules to the detriment of States. Filling up huge vacancies is going to be a colossal task as the LBS National Academy of Administration is not equipped to handle an intake of over 180 trainees at a time.

Massive vacancies in the judiciary too have impacted the criminal justice system in the country. Though the Chief Justice of India N V Ramana has taken it upon himself to fill up vacancies in the courts, the vacancies of about 400 Judges in High Courts are being attributed to want of suitable candidates. Small wonder that cases continue to be pending for years in the various Courts. As on March 31, 2022, there were 58,94,060 cases pending in 25 High Courts and 4,10,47,976 cases pending in Subordinate Courts. With 70,154 cases in the Supreme Court, it got a reprieve recently, albeit temporarily, when it had a full strength of judges.

Entrusted with maintaining law and order in the country, large number of vacancies exists in the police in every state. In Haryana, there were 20,839 vacancies last year. Overall, our country has just 155.78 police personnel for every lakh population against the ideal 222 per lakh recommended by the United Nations. The premier investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation has 1,374 vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 7,273 as on December 31, 2020.

It hardly calls for emphasis that huge vacancies not only impact the smooth administration of the country but also deprive lakhs of job aspirants from their rightful claim. While many resort to the extreme step of committing suicide, there are others who take to crime for survival thus putting a heavy burden on the police which is already battling staff crunch. Vacancies need to be foreseen and action taken well in advance for smooth functioning of every department for the well being of every citizen of the country.

(The writer is a former IGP, CRPF)