With the advent of the Money Economic System and Complex Societal System, Human beings are counted on the basis of Human Resources. Earlier, where Agriculture and allied activities were the main source of livelihood, now Human resource is super specialized to a particular niche. In India Government Jobs is considered as an important niche and the majority of the population wants to occupy these positions.
In India government jobs are considered as a lucrative instrument of livelihood. Here these jobs are part of bureaucracy, where it is traced from top most position to bottom. Each post is balanced with Power and Responsibilities.
Institutions As a Recruiter
A recruiter can be seen as per the federal setup of India. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is a recruiter of All Indian Services and Central services. State Public Service Commission is responsible for recruitment of top services of state cadre, for example MPPSC for Madhya Pradesh. Both UPSC and State PSCs are Constitutional bodies.
There are few bodies like Staff Selection Commission (SSC) for Central Government and Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board (MPESB) for Madhya Pradesh, which are responsible for recruitment for Government Jobs of lower rank then UPSC and State PSCs. Parliament can Recognise these bodies as Statutory or these institutions can be constructed with an Executive order like the present scenario.
Lucrative Elements of Government Jobs
These elements are going to explain us how a base of obsession is created in the mind of Aspirant. These elements are:-
Self Satisfaction
After being selected in a particular Government job, aspirants feel a sense of achievement and pride. Aspirent live this life in their dreams. They also dream about how their problems can vanish after selection.
Power
The Government Jobs are power oriented. As an aspirant or a common man, as an individual feels powerlessness. So, power becomes an important motivation for any aspirant. Here power means a chance to make a decision.
Prestige
A higher social status is another motivating factor. It is the recognition of individuals to higher Social Strata of status by other people. Government Jobs comes with respect, name and fame too.
Logistics
It includes facilities like housing, transport, and personal management. For higher posts the Government appoints various Service Providers for the post holder.
Job Satisfaction
It includes Job security, office timing, leisure time and much more. The degree of job security is high at Government Jobs. Job security excludes the other features of job satisfaction. There are other benefits too in Government Jobs like Medical Facilities, Pension schemes etc.
Latent Lucrative Elements
There are the elements which always have their presence, everyone knows about it, the majority of people want to be part of it but no one wants to claim these elements in public. Particularly corruption and allied activities.
The famous statement by Lord Action “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. In the same manner Higher Rank Officials have greater opportunity to be corrupt. It can be explicitly seen in the form of Money, Dowry (in personal relationship), using state’s equipment and machinery for personal use.
Other Opportunities and their Drawbacks
In India, there are various opportunities of employment and livelihood. It contains skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled employment opportunities. But here we are going to talk about opportunities which ensure good payoff in the form of money and other benefits.
These can be divided into three main sectors:-
Business Sector
It involves few important things such as Land , Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship but the most important element is the Idea on which a Business used to build. These five elements should be rational and logical otherwise it leads to loss of money and confidence as well.
In India Failure rate of start-ups is very high. It is a discouraging element for people to opt for business as a means of livelihood. On the other hand Government Jobs are less riskier than Businesses.
Private Job Market
High paying Private jobs are of super specialized nature like management, engineering sector etc. if you have specialization in a particular domain then it is quite easy to get into these jobs. But Job security is not at the level of Government Jobs. The workload and incentives are sometimes not balanced in nature. That’s why Government Jobs are mostly preferred over Private Jobs.
Professional Jobs
These Jobs are related to particular talents like singing, dancing, acting etc. these jobs also involve special degree courses like for being Doctor, lawyer etc. the first category mostly don’t go for Government Jobs but the second category also try to enter into Government Jobs.
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The Signs of Obsession
Rising Preparation Industry
Particularly these industries come under the Education Industry. The fees of these industries are rising at the compounding rate of about 10% per year. New innovation has been seen in these sectors in the form of Online Education, Doubt clearing sessions, mentorship etc. The turnover of companies is also increasing. The new companies like Physics Wala also have the chance to compete in the market. These show the importance of Government jobs Among people.
Inflation at Vicinity of Preparation Industry
Among one of the factors of inflation is high demand and low supply. In the same manner the population in the vicinity of the preparation industry is continuously rising because the average time spent by an aspirant in that area is above 2 years. So, the price of rental properties and basic necessities are continuously rising. Instead of these people are ready to pay the inflated amount.
Age Relaxation and Attempts
If we particularly talk about UPSC then, the maximum age criteria is 32 years and attempts allowed are 6. Earlier, this criteria was 30 years and 4 attempts for general categories. On the other hand for State PSCs this limit extends up to 45 years and unlimited attempts. This shows how eagerly people want to join these Government Jobs. Still the debate and discussions of age relaxation and numbers of attempts are on. On the other hand we can see how aspirants are not contributing to economic production.
Conversion of, a matter of Dream to matter of Ego
Particularly to UPSC, Seats per year are about 1000 and applicants reach above one million. So the probability of selection is less than 0.001 which is very low. Many times the most qualified people are not able to crack the exams. So, the matter of Dream converts to the matter of Ego. This statement can be justified by viewing the Student’s Suicide cases in India. It clearly shows the obsession with Government Jobs.
Conclusion
To overcome this obsession, there should be a two directional approach. One from Macro perspective (from the governance perspective). Government should create a favorable environment for employment in various sectors. And another is micro perspective (at the level of an individual). Individuals should be well aware of their capabilities and focus on innovation.