image source-hindustantimes.com
We all know about unemployment and underemployment issues in the country. The supply of graduates, engineers, and many others is greater than the actual demand. With the need of work and money in this changing global economy, well-educated degree holders are applying for jobs at sanitary posts. As many as seven thousand graduates - including engineers, graduates, diploma holders, etc. have applied for 549 sanitary workers posts in Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC).
Arun Kumar, BE in Mechatronics who applied for the post said that he completed his engineering but could not get a job in his field, hence he was there. He also added that there were at least 13 mates of his from the mechanical engineering department applying for the post as well. In some cases, it was found that although the applicants were already employed in private firms, the government jobs attracted them as the starting salary is INR 15,700.
Additionally, those who were already working as the contract sanitary workers for the past 10 years have also applied for the same permanent jobs. Many graduate applicants also stated that they applied for the jobs because they were underemployed and a salary as less as INR 6,000-7,000 after working for 12 hours was difficult with no job security as well.
On the other hand, the sanitary worker's job earns them a salary of nearly Rs 20,000 with the work timings of three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. This also provides them with an option of taking up other part-time works and jobs to fill their money buckets and provide time to make more work-related engagements.
The real question that arises here is what can be done?
We do blame the Government and the entire system of the economy- fair enough. But has this blame game gotten us anywhere? A major problem in terms of demographics is mainly the growing population! No matter what field it is- engineering, medical, CA, etc. the supply is certainly more than the demand. This then gives rise to underemployment and unemployment, which brings us back to the circle of poverty!
With modern technology, cheaper machines and higher productivity coming in, the question of automation replacing labour or reducing labour requirements is looming in the background. Research and tests have been conducted on for driver-less cars. In America, Amazon recently also opened a “cashier-less store”. Many people will lose jobs once everything gets automated. This is just the beginning.
Underemployment in youth
The approximated youth unemployment rate is almost three times the overall rate of unemployment. Most of the youth including engineers and MBAs are applying for a few peons’ jobs, due to lack of jobs in their own streams.
The government is proposing to release its own data to show a presumably better picture. No matter the extent of unemployment, a few points need to be emphasised:
Firstly, no data collection method is perfect or 100 per cent reliable. Also, data on employment in the unorganised sector is far unreliable as compared to the organised sector. But that has been the case all the time. So, just because the data turns out to be unpalatable for a government, its suppression (that is, of NSSO data) is a risky trend which destroys the credibility of official statistics and a data collection agency whose reputation has been built over many decades.
Secondly, why are there applications flooding for a peon’s job by BEs and MBAs? For over the past few decades a proliferation of private engineering and management institutes with no quality control in the syllabus has taken place all over India, leading to a surplus of graduates whose employability is in serious doubt.
As a result, some of the graduates have questionable technical abilities and poor communication skills and are laid off as soon as the employing firm is forced to cut costs or go out of business due to intense competition. Many of them are also burdened with student loans that make them desperate to find some job. In contrast, class IV public sector employees like peons have job security and the minimum salary and benefits of such jobs that are no less than the entry-level compensation package of engineering and management graduates from institutes of dubious standards.
For these reasons, for most of the ‘educated’ people in our country, any government job is a desired one. On the other hand, with financial advancement, the space for government is shrinking, accentuating the demand-supply gap for public sector jobs. So, unless the quality of our graduates is substantially improved with proper regulation and supervision, this sad state of affairs would continue, irrespective of which political party is in power.
- Written by Dhrumi Salva
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