Anger of the jobless in Kerala

With Assembly polls around the corner, the protest by job aspirants is a new challenge that the Pinarayi Vijayan government must deal with quickly and effectively.

It’s essential that the available jobs go to the deserving and the government is duty-bound to ensure that. (Express Illustrations)

A government job is a prize catch, especially in Kerala, which has one of the highest unemployment rates among states. That’s the reason why hundreds of angry job aspirants have hit the streets, protesting against backdoor appointments and regularisation of contractual employees in various government departments, boards, PSUs and quasi-government bodies.

While aspirants for last-grade servant posts have been on a protest in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram for the last three weeks, similar agitations are being held elsewhere too, with opposition parties proactively fueling the anger. With Assembly polls around the corner, the protest by job aspirants is a new challenge that the Pinarayi Vijayan government must deal with quickly and effectively.
Unemployment is a growing concern in Kerala.

While the Periodic Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2020 estimated joblessness among youth between 15 and 29 years of age in the state at 40.5%, nearly double the national average of 21%, the Economic Review 2020, tabled by FM Thomas Isaac in the Assembly, put the unemployment rate among the general population at 9% (2018-19), significantly higher than the national figure of 5.8%. This being the scenario, the informal methods of making appointments followed by successive governments, mostly as a way to dish out favours, have undermined the regular systems in place.

Consider this: As many as 46,285 candidates made it to the public service commission’s 2018 rank list for last-grade servant posts, but only 5,524 have been given jobs so far and the validity of the rank list will end soon. In response to the protests, the Left Front government halted the regularisation of temporary staff, but promised to continue the process if it returns to power.

It’s essential that the available jobs go to the deserving and the government is duty-bound to ensure that. Favouritism and political considerations in appointments deprive the eligible candidates of opportunities. The concerns of the protesting job aspirants are genuine and their anger is justified. The government can afford to ignore them at its peril.