On Saturday and Sunday, approximately 11,000 unemployed young men from Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh flocked to Gwalior to apply for fifteen job openings for peons, drivers, and watchmen.
Applicants included graduates, post-graduates, engineers, MBAs, and even civil judge aspirants, despite the fact that the jobs required candidates to have passed the 10th grade exams.
Ajay Baghel, one of the candidates, stated, “I have a bachelor’s degree in science. I’ve applied for a position as a peon. PhD holders are waiting in this line.”
According to Jitendra Maurya, a law graduate, “I’ve sought for a position as a driver. I’m also studying for the judge’s examination. Madhav College is my alma mater. The situation is such that there are instances when there is insufficient funds to purchase books. So I figured I’d get some work.”
Some like Altaf have even come from other states. “I am a graduate and I have come from Uttar Pradesh for the peon’s job,” he told.
The massive crowd called into question the tall claims by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on government recruitment in recent months.
“We will recruit one lakh in a year. We will leave no stone unturned to fill the backlog posts,” he said a few days ago, adding, “Everyone wants employment in government services but I want to tell you the truth is that each and every student can’t get a government job.”
Numbers, on the other hand, tell a different narrative. The overall number of unemployed in Madhya Pradesh’s employment registration offices is 32,57,136. Despite the fact that the School Education Department has 30,600 openings, the Home Department has 9,388, the Health Department has 8,592, and the Revenue Department has 9,530 vacancies, the government continues to hire. In the various departments of the state government, approximately one lakh positions are empty.
Thousands of people are lining up for low-paying government jobs in Gwalior, according to job seekers.
A recent government street seller scheme had 15 lakh applications, with over 90% of the 99,000 picked being graduates.
“This illustrates what the development of 17 years of Shivraj rule genuinely looks like,” said Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja, referring to the state’s job crisis. “Who said 1 lakh jobs could be filled in a month? Where are those leaders? When will they come on the streets?”
According to the research tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), Madhya Pradesh’s unemployment rate was only 1.7 percent in November, significantly lower than other states.
However, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 95 persons died by suicide in Madhya Pradesh alone last year as a result of unemployment.
