After a review of the ‘status of human resources in all departments and ministries’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office tweeted that the government will undertake the recruitment of 10 lakh people in mission mode, in the next 1.5 years.
Massive Employment at this point? What could be the cause?
The government has been slow on recruitment posts in the past few years. When asked, the representatives have sought to point toward the schemes of the government such as the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), etc.
But, despite these schemes, the need for government posts remains high which is seen during applications of government jobs or through the surge in the number of coaching classes for the competitive exams needed to be cracked to attain these jobs. The government has received criticism on this issue, and several leaders have been held accountable by the youth.
Henc, “mission mode” recruitment recognizes this demand from the youth and aims to act upon it.
Current Strength of Government’s Human Resources
The Union government revealed that the strength of the Central Government’s employees stood at 34.65 lakh as of March 1, 2022. 92% of the government’s manpower is employed by the five ministries/ departments of Railways (almost 40%), Home Affairs (almost 30%), Defense (Civil) (nearly 12%), Department of Posts (almost 5.50%), and Department of Revenue (more than 3%).
According to the data available from the Annual Report of Department of Expenditure, 21.75% of the 40.78 posts available were vacant as of March 1, 2020.
How many Vacancies Does The Government Have?
Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the DoPT, told the Rajya Sabha that as of March 1, 8,72,243 positions were vacant in the central government.
It was also disclosed that the sanctioned strength of the IAS is 6,746, but the actual strength remains to be 5,23, which means 1515 seats were vacant as of January 1, 2021.
How many people have been recruited in recent years?
Minister Singh’s Parliament response of February 3, 2022 demonstrates that more than 2.65 lakh were recruited in 2020-21 —13,238 by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), 1,00,330 by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and 1,51,900 by the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). According to the Minister’s reply, the last order to fill vacancies was issued on June 3, 2021.
The main recruitment bodies
The UPSC and SSC are the main hiring bodies for recruitment. In the previous 5 years, UPSC advertised 27,764 posts and filled 24, 836 posts while SSC advertised for 1,85,734 posts and recruited 1,74,744 people.
