The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has over the years noticed a decline in the number of job vacancies for the candidates. In 2014, there were around 1364 total vacancies in UPSC which reduced to 1164 in 2015, 1209 in 2016, 1058 in 2017 and 812 in 2018.
Since 2014, the posts advertised by UPSC have dropped remarkably by 47%. The dip is seen even when the country is experiencing a shortage of IAS and IPS officers.
A report citing a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) official said most of the shortages in the government sector are at the entry-level.
Apart from the civil services, the total recruitment by the UPSC in other exams such as Engineering Services Examination, Combined Medical Services Examination, Combined Defence Services Examination, National Defence Academy Examination, Central Armed Police Forces Examination, among others also witnessed a dip of 30%.
The decline in the number of vacancies in the government sector is a result of increased privatisation, digitisation and automation, observe the academicians.
“The liberalisation policy of the 1991 has moved to another level lately. Various policies implemented in the last few years have led to a significant reduction in the number of vacancies required in the government sector. Manual work is now being replaced by machines. For instance, after GST, the tax collection process was automated as a result of which fewer officials are required to work for taxation,” says Manoj K Jha, founder, GS Score Institute.
We cannot expect the number of job opportunities to rise in the coming future, it will continue to further reduce in a few years, before stabilising at one point, he adds.
In 2013 there were around 20, 000 vacancies in Staff Selection Commission (SSC), which reduced to 12,000 in 2018 and 8,000- 9,000 vacancies now, highlights Deepak Mishra, an SSC tutor.
The downsizing in the number of opportunities in SSC is a result of multiple factors including the inability of the government to create more jobs, shady administrative process and lack of honesty in conducting the exams, he highlights.
“The SSC exams have also been marred by paper leaks, continuous rescheduling of dates and excessive delay in result declaration. In addition, the government is filling up the positions on an ad-hoc basis in most organisations. The exams for railways and SSC conducted by NTA have been widely affected by the ongoing inefficiency,” he says.
While the Banking sector has been advertising fewer job vacancies for many positions over the years due to the merging of many banks, the examination conducting bodies IBPS and SBI have achieved the set deadline for conducting exams and result declaration.
The loopholes and the inefficiency in the administrative procedure is greatly impacting the students who devote several years of hard work to these competitive exams.
Vivek Yadav, SSC aspirant from Noida, who is still waiting for the results of SSC exams held in 2018 says, “Students are not left with many career options due to the long delays. We invest in 3-4 years to prepare and appear for the exam, and the continuous postponement and rescheduling leads to unambiguity and uncertainty. Students are this way not left with exit options also and lose out on alternative opportunities too.”
