Nitish Kumar govt rides caste survey to hike quota, but numbers show flip side: only 1.5% in govt jobs | Political Pulse News

Furthermore, there are clear disparities between castes when it comes to the number of people employed in government jobs. While 15.5% of the state’s population falls in the general category, 31.29% of this category is engaged in government jobs. In the case of Other Backward Classes (OBC), only 1.75% of them are in government jobs, although they constitute 27.12% of the state’s population.

According to the survey, in the case of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), which constitute 19.65% and 1.68% of the state’s population respectively, only 1.13% and 1.37% are in government jobs.

Only 0.98% of the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) are in government jobs, although they constitute 36.01% of the state’s population.

As of now, there is no new employment policy, the CM had last promised in his 2022 Independence Day speech to provide 10 lakh government jobs before the 2025 assembly elections. The government has appointed 1.22 lakh teachers and notified another 1.22 lakh posts.

Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav expressed confidence of fulfilling the promises of his government. “We are moving rapidly towards fulfilling our promise. The government is implementing employment schemes, which provide grants and incentives to promote self-employment,” he said, adding that after the survey the government passed a bill which increased the overall quota in government jobs and educational institutions to 50%. Increased to 65. ,

Nitish, who first came to power in 2000, launched a government employment campaign in 2007 and his government claims to have provided more than eight lakh jobs in the last 16 years. In October 2020, the CM had attacked the then opposition on the issue and said that between 1990 and 2005, the Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi governments had managed to provide only 95,000 jobs.

private/unorganized sector

According to the caste survey, a total of 15.9 lakh people (1.21% of the population) are employed in the private, organized sector, while another 27.9 lakh (2.13%) are employed in the unorganized sector. The survey shows that 39.91 lakh (3.05%) people are self-employed, with OBCs and EBCs dominating the number.

A large part of the state’s population – 2.18 crore – are daily wage laborers and masons, while the state is home to 33,818 beggars and 28,355 ragpickers.

The survey re-establishes heavy dependence on agriculture, revealing that more than 1 crore people are engaged in farming.

“No government can create more government jobs unless a serious effort is made to reduce dependence on agriculture and create jobs in other sectors. Nitish’s promise to create government jobs seems illogical and politically motivated as it comes before the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly elections that follow,” economist and retired head of the department of economics, Patna University, NK Chaudhary, told The Indian Express. .

BJP has said that Nitish’s promises will be a burden on the state exchequer. “The recent announcement of giving Rs 2 lakh to 94 lakh poor families and a one-time payment of Rs 1 lakh to 63,000 families is likely to impose an additional burden of Rs 2.5 lakh crore on the state. This will increase further due to increase in salary and honorarium payments. The government needs to tell people how it plans to raise funds, otherwise the promises will ring hollow,” said BJP state vice-president Santosh Pathak.