The number of applications for a Government job has increased because of the privilege-shelter that such positions offer, as against the challenges of enterprise that keep private sector employees on their toes
Had I been the news editor of a daily, I would have called back the reporter who brought me the news item that as many as 23 lakh people have applied for a place among the 368 peons to be selected in UP Government service. I would have then asked him to re-check his facts. However, in India, the number of applicants for Government jobs and their educational status — some holding a PhD degree or a post graduate degree — is unbelievable. Such a news item cannot be pushed into the ‘believe it or not’ box on the inside pages of the newspaper.
Across the country, there is hardly a place, where people associated with wealth, enterprise and upper-caste roots, linked to social and economic privilege, are not agitating for inclusion within the brackets of other backward classes or communities, which are eligible for reservations in Government jobs and even promotions within public sector entities.
The demand by the Patel community for inclusion in the Other Backward Caste quota has caught the news headlines for several weeks now. Some analysts have revealed that the public perception of Patels holding key positions in enterprises in Gujarat and elsewhere, even in the United States is a reality, but they are agitating for the lower positions in the social ladder.
The current reservation framework ensures that Government jobs and admissions to Government-run professional colleges are unavailable to them because they do not have access to the benefits of reservation. The core of these apparently unconnected events is that Government jobs, even at the lowest level, are more preferable than big ticket positions in the private sector.
It is just because of this that both, the doctorate holder (who is applying for a peon’s job) and the Patels (who are known for their enterprise and business acumen even in foreign shores) are demanding privileged entry into Government jobs.
And it’s not just the Patels — the Gujjars, the Jats and Muslims too have been demanding reservations almost on a regular basis, despite the fact that the apex court has laid down that a red line for reservations that has to be drawn at 50 per cent. In certain States, almost every numerically or economically powerful community is in the privileged list — do hell with the red line!
The preferred shelter of a Government job, as against the challenge of enterprise that makes ever rising demands on one’s potential, can adversely affect the rise of a new generation in the 21st century, that is constantly subject to what economists have designated as an era of disruption.
Of course, every now and then, we have reports of someone leaving the big ticket job of a managing director or a founder president of a company to take the difficult road of a ‘start-up’ company. But such adventurers are few and far between. A majority of them want good wages with the added advantage of security and no hastle about re-learning or facing obsolescence every second or third year.
In the private sector, a PhD holder is as much in a volatile environment as an entrepreneur whose product may be selling like hot cakes today but can be upturned by a newcomer overnight.
This is the age of technology in which the shelf-life of products and knowledge shrink continuously. Similarly, it is not unusual to find professors in universities protesting against new rules of teaching that mandate re-educating themselves with the latest developments if they want to hold on to their jobs. The flipside of the combo of technology dynamics and free market dynamics is that it keeps all enterprises on their toes. Chief executives are fired by their managing boards via telephone.
Think of the ignominous exit of the CEO of the prestigious German engineering giant Volkswagen in the face of the latest scandal. Yet another example is the unceremonious sacking of the Yahoo! chief executive officer a few months back. From low level executives to the top ones, no one in the private sector is sure if the corner cabin door will be open for him tomorrow.
Why not, therefore, look for a low-level job like that of a peon in a Government service, where you only have to move files from one desk to the other or fetch tea for the saheb in the cabin, as they used to do a century back — the only visible change is that the colour of thesaheb has changed from white to brown.
Moreover, Government jobs are no longer low-paying as it used to be 20 years back. The Sixth Pay Commission, whose recommendations were accepted by the Government of India and implemented in 2006, gave the so-called class IV employee (now upgraded) Rs18,000 at the basic entry level. That with other benefits of the job could take him to at least Rs30,000 per month to start with.
There are, of course, provisions in the Constitution for the President to withdraw his pleasure — that is the euphemism for sacking his officer anywhere anytime. But that would be in the rarest of rare case. In any case, a peon sitting outside the cabin waiting to hear the bell ring is hardly a target for the presidential ire.
Besides, at the Union Government level, there is great excitement at the expected report of the Seventh Pay Commission, likely before the 2016 Budget — and the PhD holder as well as the uniformed orderly at the Raisina Hill red sandstone buildings are all bound to benefit.
No Pay Commission will reduce his wages — the basic scale now starts at Rs22,000 per month, which can only go up, and never go down. Surely, a little humiliation at such low job can be no big price for good pay with strong security and no great responsibility and none whatsoever if technology changes by the hour!
Attitudes like this will raise a question: Is it good for the country if its young men and women continue to retain the preference for a stagnant place in the hierarchyIJ
No economy can progress if its people, especially the young, prefer stagnant security in jobs over the excitement and adventure of making a niche for oneself in the changing dynamics of our present demanding age.