Furore over jobs

Telangana is witnessing a debate over government jobs. Rightly so as the new state was formed on the premise that it would ensure justice in water, funds and jobs.

The movement for Telangana state has portrayed the united state as the main culprit for inadequate expansion of employment opportunities in government sector.

It has also wrongly depicted that thousands of government jobs will fall vacant once the state is divided. The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) which spearheaded the movement for separate state is now exerting pressure on the government to translate that promise of the movement into a reality.

Instead of addressing growing discontent among youth over the higher levels of educated unemployment, the ruling dispensation is dismissing the move by the TJAC leadership as politically motivated.

Unfortunately, even the TJAC is oblivious to the efforts of Telangana government. The new state government has earnestly attempted to revitalise the Public Service Commission and facilitated issue of several notifications.

But a coherent and comprehensive policy on government employment in particular and creation of jobs in general is lacking. Instead of sloganeering on government jobs that can only trigger emotions, the TJAC that represents the civil society initiative should come out with an alternative policy on employment.

Failing to do so, it would only legitimise the unwanted criticism by the ruling party that TJAC leadership is acting at the behest of opposition to serve a political project.

The contours of any such alternative policy on public employment can be as follows: The government should come out with a white paper on the existing vacancies in the government sector.

It should initiate en masse recruitment for these vacancies as one time offer for the educated unemployed of Telangana who enthusiastically participated in the movement for separate state with a hope that it would usher them into government employment.

The government that gave Telangana increment for the state government employees as a token of appreciation of their role in the movement should extend a similar gesture to the educated unemployed in the form of such a one-time recruitment.

It should enact a public employment legislation that mandates filling up of vacancies for government jobs through an annual time-table. This would create confidence in the unemployed youth.

Present uncertainty over notifications is taking a heavy toll on the resources of unemployed. When the UPSC does so in regard to central employment, why can’t the state service commission do?

No government can provide job to every aspirant. But, it should at least provide a level-playing field for all the aspirants. The coaching industry has disempowered rural youth, especially the economically marginalised.

The government should provide quality training to all aspirants free of cost so that they stand equally in the competition. Such an effort would not even cost much.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) started with much fanfare seems to have not made any significant impact on skilling Telangana youth.

The government should step in to make the youth industry-ready so that they can avail of emerging employment opportunities in the private sector.