Harikishan Sharma
A budget of Rs 4,500 crore will be required annually to fulfill the central government’s promise of 10 lakh jobs in mission mode in the next 18 months. These existing vacancies or posts, which in the last few years have generally remained almost completely unfilled due to slow and complicated recruitment process, court intervention and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic.
A government source said, 90 per cent or more of these jobs or vacancies are in Group C category which includes clerks, peons and semi-skilled workers. An employee of the new Group C costs the government about Rs 40,000 per month.
Sources in the government said it is not easy to recruit on such a large scale in a short span of 18 months, but the big challenge would be training and induction and subsequent promotion after recruitment. “Such unilateral recruitment would mean that all these employees together would be eligible for promotion,” a source said.
An analysis of official government data shows that as on March 1, 2020, 8.72 lakh posts were vacant in 77 ministries/departments. Of these, 90 per cent belong to just five ministries or departments – Defense (Civil), Railways, Home Affairs, Posts and Revenue. Data shared by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in the Lok Sabha on March 30, 2020, shows that 31.32 lakh are regular employees in 77 Ministries/Departments as against the total sanctioned posts of 40.04 lakh employees as on March 1, 2020. are government employees.
The highest number of vacancies in 77 ministries/departments – 2.47 lakh are in Defense (Civil), followed by Railways (2.37 lakh), Home Affairs (1.28 lakh), Posts (90,050) and Revenue (76,327).
The group-wise analysis of vacancies shows that out of 8.72 lakh vacancies, maximum 7.56 lakh – or 86.69 per cent – were in Group-C (non-gazetted). Group C employees “perform supervisory as well as operational functions and provide clerical support in ministries and regional organizations.” Following the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, the erstwhile Group D posts, which were meant to carry out regular duties, have been merged into Group C.
The data shows that maximum posts of Group C (Non-Gazetted) were vacant in Railways. The data shows that there were 78,045 vacancies in Group-B (non-gazetted) and 85 per cent of these were in five departments – Defense (Civil), Revenue, Home Affairs, Mines and Science and Technology.
The number of vacancies in Group A posts, which “belong to higher administrative and executive and senior management positions in ministries/departments and regional organisations”, was reported at 21,255 as on March 1, 2020. The maximum vacancies in Group A were from Revenue (3,973), Home Affairs (3,890), Defense (Civil) (3,480), Mines (1,611) and Railways (1,069).
The announcement comes at a time when the unemployment rate for youth (aged 15-29) in urban areas has been hovering over 20 per cent for the past several quarters, and the COVID-19 induced economic crisis across the country has left lakhs of workers has hurt.
While the number of vacancies has increased over the years, the pace of recruitment has not picked up. According to information shared by Minister Jitendra Singh, Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) advertised 1,85,734 and 27,764 posts in five years between 2017-18 and 2021-22 respectively. Recruited 1,74,744 and 24,836 candidates.