23,600 Candidates Applying For 5 Posts Makes A Peon's Job One Of The Most Sought After In Rajasthan

After Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, comes another story of large scale unemployment. This time it is in Rajasthan, where 23,600 people have applied for five vacant peon posts.

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One out of those over 23,000 candidates is 25-year-old Zohaib Aman who has an M.Com degree and is part of the queue in Jaipur's Raj Bhawan coming all the way from Kota. He wants to be a peon like so many others. "My family insisted that I apply for a government job, so I came here," Zohaib is quoted as saying by the Indian Express. (Also read: Tough competition for peon jobs in Chattisgarh)

This has been a regular sight off late at the Governor's House-cum-Secretariat in Jaipur where everyday hundreds of candidates aged between 18 and 35, line up in a bid to get through a successful interview for a peon's position. (Read: Over 23 lakh jobless people apply for 368 peon posts)

"About 23,600 people have applied for five positions. We have formed four panels that are conducting the interviews in three shifts every day. The interviews, which began on October 26, are expected to go on for another month-and-a-half," Dr Lokesh Chandra Sharma, Public Relations Officer to the Rajasthan Governor, said.

A total of 600 interviews are conducted per day with 150 people making up one batch, according to the report in Indian Express. Examining all the candidates would in this way take about 40 days for the interview to be complete. 32-year-old Shiv says it is 'injustice' to call so many people for the interview when there are just 5 vacant positions, especially when candidates themselves have to be the travel expenses.

Just like Shiv, there are many others who hope to have a government job one day. Some are daily wage earners, who make 150-300 rupees a day or some work on the farm fields. Some sell tea and some have been forced to give up studies due to tragic losses in the family.

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What will they get for applying for this job?

A monthly income of Rs 6,060 during the first two years of probation. Following which if their performance is found satisfactory, they would be taken in as Class IV employees with a pay grade of Rs 5,200 ¨C 20,200, along with perks. According to the advertisement in the newspaper, they need to be Class V pass and must be aged between 18 to 35 to be eligible.

Rajasthan's Labour and Employment Minister (Independent Charge), Surender Pal Singh, hopes the 'Skill India' initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help improve the vast unemployment scene. "The traditional education system has been unable to instill skills, which has led to large-scale unemployment. Hence our Chief Minister and Prime Minister are encouraging the youth to ¡®skill' themselves," the minister told Indian Express.

"What happens is that a person may have a degree, but a certain factory may have a vacancy for a technical position, so a person with a diploma in that field would be more suited that the one with a (non-technical) degree. Therefore, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with top firms for diploma courses even as short as three months at our Industrial Training Institutes. If a youth is unable to pursue higher education, he may go for a diploma after Class VI or VIII to skill himself¡ªthe 14 months of a diploma may weigh more than 14 years of traditional education," he said.