KOLKATA: A hospital in Kolkata received applications from engineers, post-graduates, and graduates for Dom jobs in a mortuary that demands Class-VIII education and offers a monthly salary of Rs 15,000.
A month ago, Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital sought applications for six vacancies and around 8,000 candidates responded.
Though the minimum educational qualification required is Class-VIII, 100 applicants completed engineering courses, 500 are postgraduates and more than 2,000 are graduates. The response from candidates with higher degrees reflects the sorry state of employment, said an official of the state government.
The hospital authorities decided to call 784 candidates for a written interview. "The educational qualification for the job was Class-VIII. It doesn’t mean that candidates with higher education cannot apply for the job. If postgraduates and engineers apply for the job, we cannot do anything,’’ said an official of the hospital.
In its appointment notice, the hospital authorities said the applicants’ age should be between 18 and 40 and if they have experience in working morgue, it will be considered as an advantage. The notice also said it would prefer if the candidates are from the Dome community.
In 2017, Malda hospital authorities issued an advertisement seeking applications for two vacancies for the same job. Responding to that, postgraduate applicants with Ph.D. degrees applied. Similarly, in 2019, many postgraduates applied for eight posts in Cooch Behar Medical College and Hospital.
In Sagar Dutta Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the authorities had to cancel the walk-in-interview for the same post after thousands of candidates with higher education turned up.
‘’The candidates from the backward Dome community will be given priority. Many women, too, applied for the job. Among those, who have been selected for written tests, many are with higher education. Similar examples happened in states like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh. It reflects the poor state of employment in government sectors where applicants are desperate to enroll themselves,’’ said an official of the state health department.