Economy booms but India's young hanker for government jobs

Teamlease Services

21/07/2024 03:00

By Sahiba Chawdhary and Ira Dugal
       PRAYAGARAJ, India/MUMBAI, July 21 (Reuters) - Sunil
Kumar, a 30-year-old, has spent the last 9 years of his life
chasing a job in the Indian government.
        Packed with scores of others in makeshift classrooms
under tin roofs with barely enough light and air, Kumar has
spent years cramming for a variety of tests, including the
prestigious civil services exam needed to get a job as a federal
government bureaucrat. He has also tried for a provincial civil
services post and two other tests for lower level government
positions.
        He has been unsuccessful in 13 attempts to get a job.
  
    A resident of Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous
state, Kumar says he will continue to try for a government job
until he turns 32, three years short of the cut-off for him to  
appear in a civil services exam.
        "There is more security in government jobs," said Kumar.
    "If it happens in 2-3 years, the struggle of 10 years will
be worth it."
    According to government figures, 220 million people applied
for federal jobs between 2014-2022, of whom 722,000 were
selected. Many of those would have been repeat attempts, but
still, tens of millions of young Indians chase government jobs
every year even though the economy is booming and the private
sector is expanding.
        The trend underscores cultural and economic anxieties
facing many Indians. Despite living in the world’s
fastest-growing major economy, many are grappling with an
uncertain employment market where job opportunities, let alone
job security, are hard to come by. Many see government
employment as more secure than private-sector jobs in the
world's most populous nation. 
  
    "If one person in the family gets a government job, the
family believes they are settled for life," said Zafar Baksh,
who runs a training institute for those appearing in tests for
such jobs.
    In neighbouring Bangladesh, student protests against
reserved quotas in government jobs killed more than 100 people
last week.
    Since 2014, India's GDP has grown from $2 trillion to near
$3.5 trillion in fiscal 2023-24 (April-March) and is expected to
expand 7.2% in the current year.
    The aspirants say the government offers lifelong security,
health benefits, pensions and housing, which they may not get in
private employment. Few will admit to it, but many of the
government jobs also offer the prospect of money under the
table.
    Growing demand for the cram school classes has attracted
large players and lessons have moved online too, said Baksh, who
sees it as a lucrative and perennial business. 
    "There will always be demand."
        
  
        NOT ENOUGH GOOD JOBS
  
        Discontent over employment opportunities was cited by
analysts as a key reason for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
party failing to win a majority on its own in the April-May
general election, and returning to power only with the support
of allies.
    Government data released this month showed 20 million new
employment opportunities were generated in India each year since
2017/18 but private economists said much of this was
self-employment and temporary farm hiring rather than formal
positions with regular wages.
        The government, which presents the first budget since
the election next week, is likely to push job creation by giving
tax incentives for new manufacturing facilities as well as by
encouraging local procurement across sectors like defence,
Nomura said in a note this month. But these will take time to
yield jobs.
    "It's not just that there aren't enough jobs out there, it's
also that there are not enough jobs that pay well and give you
security of tenure and other benefits," said Rosa Abraham,
assistant professor at the Centre for Sustainable Employment at
Azim Premji University in Bengaluru city.
    For 22-year old Pradeep Gupta, who hopes to land a
government job, working in the private sector is the "last
option".
    "There is honour, job security and less pressure" in a
government job, he said, speaking in the Uttar Pradesh city of
Prayagraj, a booming centre of cram schools.
    Nearly 5 million students applied for 60,000 vacancies in
the Uttar Pradesh police force earlier this year and an exam for
the post of constable in central government security agencies
saw 4.7 million applicants for 26,000 posts.
    Another giving applicants a shot at positions such as office
boys and drivers in government departments, drew close to 2.6
million applicants in 2023 for about 7,500 jobs.
    Across all levels of government, including armed forces,
schools, health services and the military, nearly 6 million jobs
remain unfilled, India's main opposition party, the Indian
National Congress, has estimated.
    An email to the federal government seeking data on
government employment and vacancies was not answered.
    
    GOOD BUSINESS
    For Maroof Ahmed, who has been running a cram school in
Prayagraj since 2014, this has meant good business.
    Currently, he says, his academy has five branches, tutoring
close to 25,000 - 30,000 students a year through physical and
online classes.
    Success rates, or those who procure jobs, are low at about
5-10%, but demand remains high, he said.
    No data was available on the number of such coaching
institutes across the country since much of the industry is
informal and unorganised. 
    The clamour for government jobs is as much about attitudes
toward work as it is about the state of India's job market, said
Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of staffing firm TeamLease
Services.
    "The private sector is based on meritocracy and responds to
economic ups and downs," she said. "In the government sector,
once you get a job, mostly irrespective of your performance,
your future is secure."
 ($1 = 83.6200 Indian rupees)

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India's job market remains dominated by informal enterprises
with limited worker benefits    https://reut.rs/3ybMymJ
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 (Reporting by Sahiba Chawdhary in Prayagaraj, Ira Dugal in
Mumbai; Additional Reporting by Saurabh Kumar in Lucknow;
Editing By Raju Gopalakrishnan)
 ((Ira.Dugal@thomsonreuters.com; +91-9833024892;))