GS Paper 2
Syllabus: Government Policies and intervention
Source: Indian Express
Context: Editorial by Varun Gandhi in which he highlighted how the recruitment process for some government posts never ends. It’s diminishing the demographic dividend. As per CMIE data, India needs to create 20 million jobs annually
Direction: Non-political articles by Varun Gandhi are generally good with sufficient data and points and can be followed. Just go through the article to understand the issue. No need to make notes.
Issues highlighted:
- Delayed recruitment:
- g. recently 4,500 candidates in Andhra Pradesh who cleared a district selection committee exam in 1998 have finally been offered regular jobs as teaching staff in government schools. With 24 job-seeking years, most of them reach close to retirement.
- Railway exams of 2019 have seen over 1,000 days of delay for exams to be conducted
- Delayed recruitment cycle of SSC exams
- High tuition cost:g. tuitions costs can vary from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000 for minor posts, to Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh for UPSC coaching (excluding living costs).
- Higher expenses due to delay: If such exams get delayed, then the youth will suffer financially and mentally.
Solution:
- Reforms in the Examination Schedule:
- Each ministry should ask all departments to prepare an existing vacancies list within three days from the defined zero date.
- The departments should ideally advertise the approved list of existing vacancies within seven days of the approval of such a list
- For each week of delay beyond 30 days, the defaulting department could be liable for a small reduction in their administrative expenses
- Final examination results should be announced within a defined period.
- In the event of cancellation of examinations, compensatory attempts shall be provided to all applicants by relaxing age norms.
- Reform the examination process: E.g.
- a waiver of examination fees
- removing a barrier for candidates from economically challenging backgrounds
- providing travel and lodging allowances if the examination centre is not within a specified distance
- all examination centres must have the basic infrastructure (biometric attendance, cloakroom) and adequate security (guards, invigilators, CCTV cameras) to ensure a fair process
- An integrated examination calendar for all major educational institutions and recruitment to PSUs should be published while ensuring minimal overlap.
Government Initiative:
National Recruitment Agency (NRA): NRA is a national testing agency which would conduct the Common Eligibility Examination (CET) for non-gazetted Group B and C posts. In the initial years, NRA will conduct the recruitment examinations for Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Staff Selection Commission(SSC) and would gradually expand its operations in other examination process as well.
Conclusion:
India needs to face the challenge of job creation and upskilling of youth for the labour market to ensure that India’s demographic dividend does not become a demographic disaster.
Insta Links
Create more jobs, revamp employment policy
Mains Link
Q. With more young adults entering higher education and increasing job aspirations not matching their educational profile, the new National Employment Policy must accommodate these trends. Discuss (250 Words)
