In India, there is large scale unemployment in almost all the states. After Chattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, now it is Rajasthan where 23,600 candidates have applied for five vacant peon posts. Through these peon post, the candidate gets the 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 – 20,200, along with perks.

Candidates who had applied 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. These posts are applied due to the force of the families as it is the government job. All the candidates who had qualified in 5th class aged between 18 to 35 applied for these posts as this are the eligibility.

A 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 said that “My family insisted that I apply for a government job, so I came here.”

Dr. Lokesh Chandra Sharma, Public Relations Officer to the Rajasthan Governor, said that “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.”

According to the reports daily 600 interviews are conducted by 150 people making one batch. Examining all the candidates would in this way take about 40 days for the interview to be complete. Shiv a 32-year-old 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 him, there are many others who hope to have a government job one day.

Surender Pal Singh hopes the ‘Skill India’ initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help improve the vast unemployment scene. He said that “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”.

“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—the 14 months of a diploma may weigh more than 14 years of traditional education,” he added.