A new movement has been started by the students and Job seekers under the banner #ROZGARMANGEINDIA post the much-discussed SSC scam. They have come together to demand their employment rights.

The Indian education system has become such that it neither gives knowledge to students nor jobs. In the recent times, education and especially higher education is increasingly becoming out of reach for the ordinary people and even the middle income group because of escalating costs. The jobs are few and job seekers are in millions. On top of that, seat cuts at educational institutions and a shortage of jobs, both in government and private sectors, have shattered many a dreams forcing people to hit the streets demanding justice.

On Monday; general students, students impacted by the SSC scam, UPS aspirants affected by a reduction of seats, ad hoc teachers and student organizations joined hands against the SSC Scam and the present state of joblessness under the #ROZGARMANGEINDIA banner. Hundreds of students gathered at the Faculty of Arts building within the University of Delhi campus protesting against joblessness and demanding an inquiry into the SSC Scam. Students asked as to where are the two crore jobs promised per year by the government. The movement has put forward a set of demands and the protesters have threatened that the movement will spread across the country.

The central demands of the movement are:

• All the vacant posts should be filled up before 2019.
• The annual calendar of recruitment should become legally binding on recruitment agencies.
• Private companies shouldn’t be allowed to extract profit without generating proportionate employments.
• Corrupt nexus in recruitment agencies should be arrested.

Many students shared their experiences and gave their testimonials on job cuts and the current employment situation. Abhishek Choubey from the SSC Scam Movement said, “It is sad that thousands of students were on strike for 18 days demanding a CBI inquiry into the SSC Scam. Notwithstanding, the government tried their best to mislead the students and end the strike instead of ordering an enquiry. We had BJP leaders coming one by one to mollify us. We have given a call for a march to the parliament on the 31^st instant if our demands are not met.”

Imagine the situation. For fifty thousand odd jobs this year, two crore candidates applied for the SSC exam. Even for these jobs on offer, the question paper got leaked. In Patna, both the combined graduate level examinations and the combined higher secondary level examinations were cancelled after answers were leaked half an hour before the examination began. In the past five years, SSC has had to cancel nine examinations, partially or fully, because of exam paper leakages.

Last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice tabled its report in the parliament. The panel came down heavily on the SSC. It said, “Such a cancellation of examinations is a complete waste of efforts and resources of both the aspirants and the government and also dims the image of the commission in the eyes of general public.” It further added, “The sanctity of examination process must be maintained and it is equally important that the trust of the public and of examinees in the examination process is maintained at any cost.” The committee recommended the SSC to make all efforts to make examinations free from all types of malpractices and technical glitches.

While students appearing for the SSC exams are struggling because of the corrupt system in the commission, those aspiring to become bureaucrats are suffering because of massive seat cuts in the UPSC. In the last few years, more than 500 seats have been cut reducing it to about 700 from 1,200.

Neeraj Kumar, a UPSC aspirant, who is also a law student at the University of Delhi, said, “Since the past few years, we have been witnessing a cut in the number of seats. From more than 1,200 seats, it has reduced to about 700. I believe that the UPSC jobs are not just meant to be mere professions. These jobs are intrinsically linked to the issue of social justice because it gives various marginalized communities a chance to represent themselves at the topmost offices of the country. With such a huge cut in UPSC seats, I think it has become very difficult for aspirants to make it.”

Thousands of teaching posts are vacant across the country and no efforts are being made to fill them. Already, the struggling Indian education system has been impacted by the shortage of teaching staff. For years, teachers are kept in ad-hoc positions and not made permanent.

Laxman Yadav, an ad hoc faculty member at the University of Delhi, said, “There is a serious job crisis everywhere. At the University of Delhi, which is one of the best and the largest Universities in India, we see that there are more than 4,500 ad hoc teachers. Every time, there’s a call for applications for permanent posts, we see thousands applying for the same but every time, the appointments are withheld because of one reason or the other. The applicants pay a fee of Rs.500 for every college, but nothing happens. If it is not a scam than what is it? We demand that all call forms should be free of cost and appointments made immediately before 2019.”

While students and non permanent teaching staff have joined hands to fight against joblessness, student organisations too have extended their support. Kawalpreet Kaur, a University of Delhi student activist from the All India Students Association (AISA), said, “There’s an overall attack on all the job prospects. The country’s youth, who were promised two crore jobs every year, has only got Jumlas in the name of Rozgar. Also, it is really shameful that thousands of this country’s youths are demanding a CBI inquiry against the SSC Scam but the government is only using tactics to avoid any inquiry. We demand that the government must immediately order a CBI inquiry on the SSC issue.” She added, “We shall organize more meetings and public hearings across different parts of India and will mobilise people on the issue of jobs.”

Even on Tuesday morning, Mumbai life was thrown out of gear when job seekers blocked the rail line between Matunga and Dadar for hours. They are also job seekers in the railways and are demanding the scrapping of 20 percent reservation for those who have cleared the apprentice examination. The fact is that students from across the country are seeking jobs and there is no solution being offered by the government.

#ROZGARMANGEINDIA #sscscam

Reporting by Kumar Dhananjay
Editorial Consultant, Delhi

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