As part of its fifth anniversary celebrations, the State government intends to issue 50,000 employment letters to youth by organising job fairs. On the other hand, the government is yet to announce the final results of recruitments that were announced over two-and-a-half years ago. The examinees are staring at an uncertain future due to delays in the announcement of results and the recruitment process. Thus, pushing the youngsters to either cancel their marriage or push it to a future date.
Vijay Chauhan, 27, from Botad, has been in a dilemma for two years. He got engaged in the hope of clinching a government job sooner, but the engagement broke owing to delay in the appointment. In an interview with The Vibes of India, Chauhan said, “Government had advertised 2,367 vacancies for ITI instructors in March 2019. The prelims were conducted in August of the same year and the computer tests too were conducted by January 2020. Since I had performed well in the exams, I was confident to get a job. So I got engaged in February 2020. The results of the computer exam were also announced in June, but due to an unexpected delay in receiving the appointment letter, the girl’s family called off the engagement.”
A few others left a stable job in a private company for a government job but are now frustrated by the delays caused by the government. Monika Zindani, from Ahmedabad, quit her job at a private company to become an ITI supervisor. Monica told VoI, “As soon as the post for an ITI Instructor was announced, I left the private company where I had been working for five years and started preparing for the exam. Due to a delay in the recruitment process, my dream of buying my own house and helping my father remained unfinished. Not being employed and because of social pressures, I was married off. After a computer test in January 2020, I was confident to secure a job soon. So I pushed my husband, an Inter CA, to leave his job and complete his final CA term. As we are yet to receive the final results, we have a feeling to have lost our two-and-a-half years, doing nothing.”
Another young man Samir Patel said, “In 2018 when the examination forms for the 2,848 posts for Talati-cum-Mantri and Junior Clerk were issued, I was working in a private company. I resigned from the private company and started preparing for the exam, but the government did not conduct examinations for three years. Recently, they cancelled all the process forms that took place in 2018, citing administrative reasons.”
Similar to Vijay, 32-years-old, Samir’s engagement was also called off. He said, “The community does not prefer to marry brides to the unemployed.”
Virendra Ahir, 25, said, “Though the non-secretariat examination was declared in 2018, due to a change in the academic qualification and paper leaks, a re-examination is still pending. The government is unable to fill 3,900 posts even after three years. This delay has lead to depression in many youngsters leading them into a future of uncertainty and loss of focus on studies.”
A 30-year-old man working in a government job said on conditions of anonymity, “In 2015, 68 posts were advertised for those who wanted to become lecturers in electrical engineering colleges. Its prelim exams were taken in 2016 and the results were also announced by 2019. The government then abruptly reduced the number of vacancies from 68 posts to 36 in May 2021. Not a single appointment letter is issued as yet to any student.”
The young man added, “When I passed the exam, my father was on cloud nine and he invited the entire community for a feast. But failing to secure a job had shattered my hopes and confidence. Eventually, I gave up hope for this job and started preparing for other government exams. Luckily, I was appointed to the magistrate’s court but in the event of waiting for the earlier job, my father passed away.”
Although more than two and a half years have passed, no one has been appointed to the 9,117 government posts that were announced. Of the 2,367 vacancies announced for the ITI Instructor in 2018, the results of all the students have yet not been released. More than 1.5 million people filled up the forms for the exam. The students have also staged various agitations against the delays in announcing results.
Yuvraj Singh Jadeja, the leader of the protesters in the ITI instructor exam, said, “The government is giving appointment letters to 300 students who have passed the ITI instructor exam in the job fair. However, the government has not been able to release all the results of the examination held two-and-a-half years ago.”
The non-secretariat exam has been in controversy and there have been protests about it. Jadeja added, “We have raised the issue with everyone from the Director of Examinations to the President. We have also made representations to the government through Gujarat MLAs and MPs, but the government has turned a deaf ear. The Governor had assured us that our case would be represented but in vain. We also ran a Twitter campaign on this issue, which became the most trending in the country. There are no whereabouts of the previously conducted exams and results thereof, and yet the government has gone ahead to celebrate job fairs.”
