SRINAGAR: Doctorates, post-graduates and graduates have applied for government jobs as orderlies, guards and sweepers in Jammu and Kashmir in a sign of desperation over unemployment.
With few opportunities in the private sector, the demand for government jobs has increased. At least 18,000 candidates, many of them with Ph.Ds and post-graduate degrees, have applied for 110 class IV posts advertised by Government Medical College, Srinagar (GMC). They are seeking work as nursing orderlies, office orderlies, ward boys, lab attendants, sweepers and stretcher bearers.
Those selected would be eligible for a monthly salary of about `14,000 after five years of probation.
GMC administrator G R Kumar told The Sunday Standard that the applications would be received till March 12.
“At least 5,000 graduates and 2,000 postgraduates have applied for the posts,” he said.
Kumar said the minimum qualification for the posts is matriculation and the highest qualification asked for was higher secondary. He said that candidates who had higher qualifications would not be given any additional weightage during consideration.
The administrator said last year a candidate with a Ph.D was selected as a sweeper in GMC. “The candidate also joined duty. However, on the insistence of his family, he resigned from the post,” he said.
In January, finance minister Haseeb Drabu told the Assembly that 87,650 educated unemployed were registered with employment and counselling centres. The total figure may be higher, Drabu said.
According to the official figures, the highest number of unemployed youth was in Jammu district (11,027) and the lowest in Budgam at 1,188.