NEW DELHI: Over 1.9 crore post-graduates and engineers apply to be railway gangmen for which the basic qualification is being a Class 10 pass-out.
Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) examination will be held between September 17 and October 16 to fill 62,907 vacancies.
A majority of the applicants for ‘Level 1’, earlier called ‘Group D’, the lowest level jobs are over-qualified people (graduates, post-graduates, and engineers) applying for the job, The Print has reported.
‘Level 1’ jobs include posts like gangman (those who maintain tracks), gateman, pointsman, helper in mechanical/electrical/engineering/telecommunications/signal, porter etc.
In the economy, this trend is termed ‘forced employment’, because there are no jobs available despite having certain qualifications. Despite having technical degrees, people take a job on the basis of their need, not on the basis of their qualifications.
Economist Prasenjit Bose said, “While the private/corporate sector has not been in the pink of health for many years, the proportion of government jobs is also shrinking. There is no expansion of jobs offering proper employment contract, proper pay, and social security,”
He also added that “the government has claimed to have delivered high growth, but the growth has slowed down. With demonetization, the commercial sector has been squeezed and has received a huge blow. In terms of jobs, we are heading towards disaster. There is no proper data available in terms of employment and unemployment because our employment cell is in a mess.”