High On Hope: The Widening Gap Between Aspiration And Job Opportunity

Small rooms surrounded by silhouettes of preparatory books for competitive exams바카라�sun­light never reached these corners바카라�unwas­hed dishes stacked outside the doors, toilets with witty lines scratched on their doors, like 바카라�flush pro­­perly, you are in the toilet, not the field바카라�. A slice of life in a 바카라�voluntary jail바카라�. That바카라�s the life of students aspiring for government jobs, and with it, a secure life, a pretty bride, and of course hefty dowry바카라�with anxiety of failure looming in the background.

In cities like Prayagraj, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Gor­akhpur and Azamgarh of Uttar Pradesh, throngs of students from lower-middle class families with dreams of cracking competitive exams conducted by the Indian Railways, school service commission (SSC) and other UP state government exams, are an unforgettable sight. The sheer number of students aspiring for government jobs on the streets, libraries, private hostels and bookstores around Allahabad University draw a melancholic image of new age unemployment among educated youths. Aspirants struggle to pay their monthly expenses, but the dream of getting a government job somehow keeps the spirits high.

Dharmendra Sahu (28) from Kunda Pratapgarh has been preparing for government jobs by living in Prayagraj for the last five years. Like all other aspirants, he does all the chores from washing clothes to cooking food in his 8x8 hole-in-the-wall pad. He shares his monthly room rent of Rs 2,800 with a roommate, yet his overall monthly expenses go up to Rs 4,000, which his family has to bear. 바카라�My father is a farmer and I couldn바카라�t afford engineering or any other professional courses. So I decided to prepare for government jobs, for the security they offer,바카라� he tells Outlook.

Covid-19 has exacerbated the situation. Aspirants say that exam delays due to irregularities and paper leaks are normal, but with Covid, the government found a reason to not conduct the exams at all. 바카라�Students from well-off families pursue enginee­r­ing and medicine in big cities. We can바카라�t afford these expe­nsive courses, so we pursue BA and MA in general disciplines and prepare for government jobs,바카라� says Sunil Keserwani (23). 바카라�We바카라�re agitated, we just want them to conduct exams on time.바카라� Kes­erwani adds: 바카라�Due to Covid-19, students who used to offer tuitions to younger kids, lost their means to meet their expenses. Some even returned home.바카라�

Outlook spoke with several students in UP바카라�s Purvanchal and found that government job aspirants sit for all the exams. They are ready to take any job바카라�even ones involving manual labour바카라�as long as it바카라�s a secure, government one. Pras­h­ant Yadav (25), who has completed BA, MA and LLB, is now pursuing BEd as it could help him land a teaching job at a government school. He sits for all the competitive exams for government jobs, but his aim is to crack the civil servi­ces. On why he accumulated so many degrees, he says, 바카라�Everyone can바카라�t crack the civil services exam, which keep on getting delayed, so I tho­ught I should do something instead of sitting idle. Now, I just want a government job.바카라�

An instructor at a private coaching centre, on condition of anonymity, says, 바카라�You allow election rallies attended by lakhs of people, but when we conduct classes, you raid us and file cases, because you think if students get educated, they won바카라�t vote for you.바카라�

He adds that unemployment frustration in UP and Bihar is huge. 바카라�Those who can afford to go to Delhi to prepare for competitive exams, do so. Of course it means this person is at least a graduate and can afford to pay upwards of Rs 8,000 a month. That바카라�s not the case here. Aspi­ra­nts from Bihar and UP are ready to accept just about any government job.바카라�

Talking to the students, one is reminded of Tigmanshu Dhulia바카라�s 2003 film Haasil, also set in Prayagraj, in which the familiar sight of hooliganism in student politics and mofussil aspirations played out바카라�spreading from unive­rsity campus, Civil Lines, Bagada and Salori, to all over India. There바카라�s some difference though­바카라�­far from the carefree swagger of the past, tod­ay바카라�s students seem to bear unseen burdens on their shoulders바카라�of anxiety, frustration and desperation for job security.

Unemployment Surge Crowd outside Lal Bagh Employment Office, Lucknow. Photographs: Getty Images

A protest against the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) has been going on since last mon­th. It바카라�s more visible in Purvanchal, covering the larger Awadhi and Bhojpuri regions of UP. Nat­urally, Prayagraj is in the news.

On January 14, RRB announced results for the non-technical popular categories (NTPC) exam. It selected fewer candidates than it had promised, and the reason it gave was a high cut-off. RRB featured a single candidate for multiple posts. With the exam already delayed by three years, and overall uncertainty due to repeated delays and paper leaks in other exams, the frustration spilled into the streets.

Protests by students in Bihar and UP led to widespread vandalism of public property, inc­luding in Prayagraj. Visuals of police ent­ering hostel rooms to beat students went viral. An FIR was also registered against thousands of unnamed students, along with three바카라�Rajesh Sachan, Mukesh Yadav and Pradeep Kumar바카라�who were identified.

Some injured students claimed they were bea­ten up by police even though they had not taken part in the protests. 바카라�I was studying in my room, when cops entered our hostel. They didn바카라�t spare anyone. Whoever they saw, they beat up,바카라� says Dharmendra Sahu.

Bholu Yadav in his shared paying guest accommodation in Allahabad.  Photograph: Vikram Sharma

Sahu does not deny the involvement of anti-soc­ial elements in the protest. But he also beli­eves police beat up stude­nts indiscriminately. 바카라�It doesn바카라�t work that way. We have the right to protest. And in fact, I didn바카라�t even protest, yet I got beaten up바카라�.  He adds, 바카라�What was our crime? We were studying in our room when the cops entered and broke windows and gates.바카라�

RRB NTPC notified 35,281 vacancies and sold 1.25 crore forms for the exam, of which around 18.1 lakh were sold in the Allahabad zone itself. There were 13 posts announced바카라�the qualification for some of which was Class XII pass, while for the rest it was graduation바카라�and a single exam was conducted for all the jobs.

Aspirants claim that RRB did not abide by the ann­o­uncement they had made earlier. RRB had said it would select 바카라�20 times the number of candidates than the number of vacancies.바카라� But aspirants allege that the number of candidates selected for the second round was only 11 times the number of vacancies. And most of them were graduates. RRB later clarified that they have stuck to their announcement. But aspirants bel­ieve this is a hoax, as many candidates had app­lied for multiple posts, and each of the qualifiers was counted for the number of vacancies they had applied for.

Bholu Yadav, another aspirant, says, 바카라�These are Group D jobs. We바카라�ll be tightening nuts and bolts. For that too, you are taking exams in two parts바카라�CBT-1 and CBT-2. Isn바카라�t it ironic? In Ind­ia, one exam takes over two years to complete바카라�from notification to joining바카라�and that too, und­er ideal conditions, which usually don바카라�t exist. Isn바카라�t that a waste of our time?바카라�

More Than Politics Opposition parties observing 바카라�National Unemployment Day바카라�.

Unemployment is one of the biggest crises in India. As per a response by the Union ministry of labour and employment, to a question asked by Rahul Gandhi in Parl­ia­ment in March 2020, there were over 27.11 lakh job-seekers who registered in 2017 in UP alone. In July 2021, UP state minister of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) Siddharth Nath Singh had said the UP government had provided 2.64 crore jobs to people.

In 2018, at least 93,000 aspirants applied for a peon바카라�s job in UP, including 3,700 PhDs. Professor Ravi Srivastava, director of the Centre for Employment Studies at the Institute for Human Development, tells Outlook, 바카라�These claims by the government are not backed up with data. Gove­r­n­ments are unwilling to even accept that unemployment exists.바카라�

The January protest was not the first over unemployment in the state. For the last few years, asp­irants have been protesting over irregularities in several exams. In December 2021, aspiring teachers prote­sted all­eged irregularities in the UP-TET exam to recr­uit 69,000 assistant teachers in the state.

In UP, job announcements and elections are int­erlinked. RRB had announced the NTPC vac­ancies in February 2019, just before the Lok Sab­ha elections. Afterwards, it was put on the backburner. Twice in 2021, protests broke out online, but they didn바카라�t become a poll issue. This time too, aspirants in at least three districts바카라�Pra­yagraj, Varanasi and Gorakhpur바카라�say it is not going to deepen anti-incumbency or reflect in the ballot box.

Opposition leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Priyanka Gandhi did speak up for the students, but it didn바카라�t augur well. SP promised 22 lakh jobs in the IT sector, while Congress promised 20 lakh jobs and aid to entrepreneurs. But students, especially in these three districts바카라�think these are empty promises.

Effectively, in eastern UP, unemployment has failed to blur other fault lines바카라�of caste, religion and especially their perception of how a leader should be. Some people also app­ear more conc­erned about national issues than local ones, and show a willingness to cast their vote on these.

Suraj Bind (23), who has an ITI diploma and sells jhalmuri on the streets, says, 바카라�Everyone is suffering, but Modi is bringing praise and pride for this country.바카라� Across these areas, we spoke with several others who also bel­ieved that desp­ite the unemployment, BJP바카라�led by Modi and Yogi바카라�is doing well for the nation바카라�s pride.

Jaspal Bhatti, a doyen of Indian satirical comedy, had done a lot of shows on unemployment. His song, 바카라�Jo dar dar dhundhte service (Those who struggle to find a job)바카라� epitomised the job crisis in the India of the 1980s. Since then, job crisis among educated youth has been a chall­enge for every government. The frequency of protests has now increased바카라�mostly led by government job aspirants. Online protests with hashtags like #speakupforSSCRailwaystudent, #RRBExamDates, #StudentLives­Matter and #SSCreforms, with millions of posts in support, have become frequent.  On September 9, 2020, aspirants switched off lights, lit diyas and shared these pictures with the hashtag #9Baje9Minute. Songs by Bhojpuri stars and posts by social media influencers on these competitive exams have repeatedly gone viral. This time around too, songs like 바카라�Ho gai ni barbad NTPC ke chakkar me (We바카라�re ruined by the NTPC exam)바카라� are going viral along with sarcastic mem­es, though, how far they will impact polls is yet to be seen.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Anxiety in the Hindi Hurtland")