New Delhi: Less than 1 per cent of applications received for government jobs in the past eight years have been accepted. Of the 22.05 crore applications received from 2014-15 to 2021-22, only 7.22 lakh or 0.33% were recommended for appointment in different central government departments, the Lok Sabha government informed on Wednesday.
In a written response, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Complaints and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, informed the Lok Sabha that the maximum number of applicants – 1.47 lakh – recommended for the nomination was in 2019-20, the year before the full outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The year, which also saw Lok Sabha elections, accounted for just over 20% of the total 7.22 lakh selected over the eight years.
General trend
The general trend suggests that the number of candidates selected for government jobs has been declining since 2014-2015, with 2019-2020 being the only exception. In 2014-2015, 1.30 lakh candidates were recommended for nomination, but the number dropped steadily in subsequent years – 1.11 lakh in 2015-2016; 1.01 lakh in 2016-17; 76,147 in 2017-18; 38,100 in 2018-19, 78,555 in 2020-21 and 38,850 in 2021-22.
While only 7.22 lakh candidates have been selected for an appointment over the past eight years, the Centre had announced on June 14 this year that it would recruit 10 lakh people in “mission mode” over the next 18 months. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister’s Office after Prime Minister Narendra Modi “reviewed the situation of human resources in all departments and ministries”.
Information provided by Singh also shows that a total number of applications of 22.05 crore have been received since 2014. The maximum applications (5.09 crore) were received in 2018-19, and the least – 1.80 crore – in 2020-21.
An analysis of the data shows that against an annual average of 2.75 million applications received over the eight years, 90,288 applicants were selected on average each year. The proportion of candidates selected among the number of applications received over the eight years was in the range of 0.07% to 0.80%.
Job creation
Listing various initiatives to create jobs in his response to the question from Anumula Revanth Reddy, Congresswoman for Telangana, Singh said, “Job creation coupled with improving employability is the priority of the government. As a result, the Indian government has taken various measures to create jobs in the country.
“The 2021-22 budget launched Production Linked Incentive Schemes (PLIs), with an expenditure of Rs. 1.97 lakh crore, for a period of 5 years from 2021-22. The PLI programs implemented by the government have the potential to create 60 lakh new jobs… The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is implemented by the government to facilitate self-employment. Under the PMMY, unsecured loans of up to Rs 10 lakh are provided to micro/small businesses and individuals to enable them to establish or expand their business activities,” he said.
Other programmes listed by Singh include the Prime Minister of Street Vendors’ AtmaNirbhar Nidhi launched on June 1, 2020, to facilitate unsecured working capital lending to street vendors to restart their businesses, the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana ( ABRY) launched on October 1, 2020, to encourage employers to create new jobs and restore jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic. As of July 13 this year, there were 59.54 lakh ABRY beneficiaries, he said.
Besides these, various flagship programmes such as Make in India, Start-up India, Digital India, Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, MGNREGS, Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, Deen Dayal Antodaya Yojana National Urban Livelihoods Mission, etc. are also geared towards creating job opportunities, he said.
