The Centre has announced 10 per cent reservation in jobs for economically weaker sections in the general category but has not taken any efforts to fill long-pending vacant posts.

Available data show the Centre and States have failed to fill over 28 lakh vacancies in Central universities, railways, postal department, police, various government departments, government-run schools and the judiciary.

In an effort to provide affordable healthcare, the government sanctioned 4,089 posts for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. However, 20,221 posts, including faculty, non-faculty, senior and junior residents, are vacant in these six institutes, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data presented to the Lok Sabha.

There are 41 Central universities under the purview of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). Of the 17,092 sanctioned teaching posts in 40 CUs, 5,606 were lying vacant as of April 2018, the Ministry informed the Lok Sabha last month.

There is a shortage of 10 lakh teachers in elementary and secondary government schools because the posts are lying vacant. Similarly, 4,17,057 teacher posts sanctioned under the erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are vacant nationwide, as reported by all the States and Union Territories and quoted by the HRD Ministry.

Court vacancies

There are 388 vacancies in High Courts across the States. The number of vacant Judicial Officers posts is 5,135, according to data presented by the Ministry of Law and Justice to the Lok Sabha earlier this month.

Home Ministry data reveal the Central Reserve Police Force has 22,746 vacant posts, followed by the Border Security Force (19,320), Central Industrial Security Force (5,165), Sashastra Seema Bal (19,175), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (6,398) and Assam Rifles (3,774).

At the Railways, 1,51,348 posts are lying vacant under the safety category. The number of vacancies of non-gazetted staff at Zonal Railways, as of April 2018, was 2,50,410.

Widespread issue

Last month, the Ministry of Personal, Public Grievances and Pensions informed the Rajya Sabha the number of vacant posts of Central Government Civilian Employees as on March 1, 2016 in Group A, Group B (Gazetted), Group B (Non-Gazetted) and Group C (Non-Gazetted) was 15,284, 26,310, 49,740 and 3,21,418, respectively.

Data compiled by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D) reveal there are 4,43,524 vacant posts in police departments across all the States and Union Territories.

Even the Ministry of Culture has reported over 4,000 vacancies in various departments. A large number of post offices are understaffed, with 57,574 vacant posts.

Even as the BJP government is promoting reservation for government jobs, party leaders have already suggested it’s not going to help.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recently said reservation will not guarantee employment as jobs are shrinking in the country. “Let us assume reservation is given. But there are no jobs. Government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?” he remarked to reporters in Aurangabad.

Last week, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “There are so few government jobs nowadays that 90 per cent of the people don’t get them.”

Interestingly, three flagship employment-generation schemes — the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) — have generated 27 lakh employment opportunities in the last four-and-a-half years.

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