Education at Crossroads

The stakes involved in recruitment scams are directly relatable to the gloomy employment scenario; latest CMIE data shows that 44.5 per cent of Indians in the 20-24 age bracket are unemployed, despite many of them holding graduate, or even postgraduate degrees.

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On the other hand, industry leaders rue shortage of good workers in their establishments. Thus, beyond a surfeit of candidates, there is another reason for mass unemployment; only 54.8 per cent of Indian graduates are considered employable.

According to a report tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Minister of State for Finance, per capita net national income (NNI), in 2024-25 at constant prices was a meagre Rs 1,14,710. An analysis by Anil Swarup, a former Secretary to the Government of India, shows that after excluding the richest 5 per cent of population, per capita income of the balance 95 per cent of our population, at current prices, is US$ 1130 i.e., hardly Rs 1 lakh. Despite PM Modis exhortation to youth to be job creators and not job seekers, it would be extremely difficult to set up a viable business with such limited resources ~ and the lack of vocational and business acumen that plagues Indian youth.

Young men, and young women also, are willing to work but the Government and society have no use for their services. According to the Madhya Pradesh Employee Selection Board (the infamous Vyapam ina new avatar), 9.76 lakh applications were received for 7,500 posts of constables, i.e., 130 applications for each post. Applicants included 42 Ph. Ds and over 12,000 engineers.

Similarly, 50 lakh applications, with a proportionately higher number of overqualified applicants, were received for 60,000 police constable posts in Uttar Pradesh. The 2018 mega-recruitment drive of Railways was record-breaking in many respects; 2,83,747 vacancies were notified, for which more than 4 crore applications were received and 1,32,000 appointments were made. The balance appointments were not made even after four years; agitated candidates took to the streets, burnt a train, thereby drawing public attention to their plight.