Govt vacancies galore but no jobs!

The seriousness of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre about generating employment can be gauged from the fact that the number of vacancies has been continuously increasing year after year with no concrete steps being taken to fill them.

In the year 2014-15, only 4.21 lakh posts were vacant in various central ministries and departments, which was 11.5% of the total sanctioned posts in these departments. The number of vacant posts increased to 9.10 lakh in 2018- 19, which is 22.76% of the total sanctioned posts, that is, the number of vacancies has doubled between 2014-15 and 2018-19.

In the recent war of words between the ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party and the principal opposition, the Congress Party, it emerged that vacancies have doubled from 11.57 lakhs in 2014 to 24.3 lakhs in 2022.

In sharp contradiction, Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav stated that the country has seen a massive increase in employment opportunities in the last nine years and about 1.25 crore new jobs have been created since 2014. The minister referred to the data of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to substantiate his statement.

The PM distributed only 71,256 appointment letters in the Rozgar mela, an action too little considering the 16 crore jobs that were promised to be provided in eight years, at 2 crore jobs per year. According to an investigation of data from various departments, at least 30 lakh sanctioned posts under the central government and an estimated 30 lakh posts under various state governments are lying vacant.

According to the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), more than two lakh posts of class-4, class-3 and the officer cadre are vacant in banks, which the management does not want to fill.

By appointing employees on low wages through contract and outsourced means, the institutions are saving money although these temporary employees are made to work just like permanent employees.

According to the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, in all central government departments, various PSUs, banks, autonomous bodies such as IITs, IIMs, and ISRO, and in many scientific research institutions, nearly 24 lakh posts are lying vacant; this means that 30-35% of all posts are vacant in various department and in some departments, the figure goes up to 40-50%.

Meanwhile, the BJP government is in a hurry to sell national assets under the public sector. Earlier, the government’s share in the public sector used to be between 51% to 76% and it also used to get a share in the profits.

What former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had started, Modi it seems, is bent on concluding by selling Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), increasing unemployment and making the country dependent on private players.

The central government often claims it has no data on the number of vacancies in the states. According to state budget documents, in Uttar Pradesh alone, out of 13 lakh posts sanctioned, 4 lakh were lying vacant.

Unemployment is like an epidemic, it affects all sections of society.

The fact that there are such a huge number of vacant posts proves that it is not just an administrative glitch or flaw; rather it could be happening because job generation and the welfare of the poor and the deprived does not rank high in the list of priorities of the ruling dispensaton at the Centre.