Are you a job seeker making your first foray way into an employment exchange in the state with dreams of a government job? You might have to brace yourself for the long wait that lies ahead of you.
Take the district employment office in Santhome, Chennai, for instance. It is one of the four employment exchanges in the city, with 3.81 lakh registrations. At present, it is still the 1982/83 batch of registrants who are getting the call, as filling of vacancies for the various government departments is done strictly on the basis of seniority, qualification and age. Add to that the quotas for different communities and it could easily be a minimum of 15 years before you get a call.
“We have a counselling session at the time of registration itself.” said T Vijaya Kumar, deputy director, District Employment Office, Santhome. “We advise the job aspirants not to place too much hope on a government job through the exchange and advise them to prepare for the competitive examinations. We offer free coaching for them.”
The employment exchanges, nevertheless, play a vital role in supply of manpower to the government and in tackling the problem of unemployment. “They are the largest data base of employable persons in the state,” Vijaya Kumar pointed out.
Be it junior assistants, assistants, stenographers, junior and assistant engineers of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and drivers and conductors for MTC, the government departments look to the employment exchanges to fill up the posts. Besides, employees for the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, Tamil Nadu Housing Board, Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), SIPCOT, SIDCO and Aavin are recruited through them. “We also provide special teachers for music, drawing and physical education to the education department.”
There is also a private cell, where recruitments are made for MNCs like KFC, Hyundai and Nokia and other private firms. Ask him about the long wait, he said those with proficiency in typing and shorthand get jobs quickly. Ditto those in the priority list of disabled, ex-servicemen, inter-caste couple, with one of them belonging to the SC, dependents and destitute widows.
Job fairs are held regularly to step up the recruitment process. Poor children are sent for ITI training, apprenticeships, computer science training and other short-term courses. Conducted for four hours in two sessions, the coaching classes are attended by around 75 students. But the sore point is the paltry amount – Rs 100 per hour – paid to the tutors. This should be increased to attract the best tutors is the fervent plea.