“Sir, mok ata sakri lage (Sir, I need a job in colloquial lower Assamese tone)”, this comment was posted on Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa’s Facebook post by some user. Maybe this was done intentionally to attract attention or maybe it was out of real desperation. The comment might even be fake but it soon became a meme and created a social media hysteria. This made me rethink the whole situation in the context of fixations associated with working in the government sector because, at some point in life, our parents/relatives have asked us at least once to appear for some govt based exams. Be it the coveted Civil Services, GATE, NET-JRF, Bank Probationary Officer and so on and so forth.
Thousands of students from all over India, migrate to Delhi and other study hubs for coaching to prepare for such entrances. The coaching business has become an established and profitable source of income in various pockets of Delhi and is not just limited to tuition classes. Along with it, comes accommodations, student libraries, photocopy centers, book shops, and education fair and counseling. Anyone, who has ever been to places like Ber Sarai, Rajendra Nagar in Delhi would understand the market economy of these coaching centers. Another new form of web-based market that has evolved is the Over The Top (OTT) educative platforms like Unacademy, BYJU’s etc.
The Misconception
The set of beliefs that have ignited the market forces for these exams are contradictory to the ethos for which the bureaucracy and the state machinery supposedly stand for. We have created a rhetoric that trivialises the very nature of the public sector. Rhetoric consisting of – less workload and fixed salary, stability in life, prestige, social acceptability and so on.
Many people fill in the form but don’t even appear for the UPSC prelims. There might be at times genuine reasons like accidents, disease etc but the real concern is the repetitive pattern. These are the archetypes who pursue govt jobs only for the sake of euphoria associated with it. Mrunal Patel, a renowned educator in the field of UPSC and Bank PO exams, divides aspirants into two types. Serious and JBPS. The abbreviation JBPS stands for ‘Just Because Papa Said’. These people are not limited to UPSC exams only and appear for various other entrances as well. They apply just to portray themselves as being occupied with something productive. Even among the prelims takers, not all are serious about the exam. Some are attempting out of cluelessness, just because their parents asked them or, and sometimes even for the sake of fun and ‘time pass’.
Why do youngsters who seem to be rebellious in every other aspect of lifestyle, become so clueless when it comes to choosing a career? Why do they end up opting for government exams, as a last resort? There are various reasons, including the widening gap between skills required for a job and education, the unfair working hours in the market-based industries, lack job security etc.
We can also see it as a quest for ambition in all of us to do something big in our immediate environment. The idea of a prestigious government job instills in us a sense of validation because societal acceptance and mobility grow parallel to the achievements of higher positions in the government machinery. We sort of romanticize the idea of greater community approval which getting accepted in a reputed govt job will bring for us. It’s what Marxist Antonio Gramsci calls cultural hegemony, where we agree to understand without understanding what to agree to. He famously quoted, “people don’t control ideas, and ideas control people“.
I would fall prey to an elite bias if I don’t mention the lower middle-income stratum because for them a job in a particular public sector offers immediate economic security. They see the government as the biggest employer and a means to earn their basic livelihood. Especially in tier 2 cities and small towns, which are not driven by any corporate or market growth. A railway notification for job openings means much more to them than some made-up passion story of a topper circulating on YouTube.
When Aspirations Turn Into Dust
In school, we used to welcome dignitaries and VIP guest who were big shots serving as Secretaries. That has imbibed in us a sense of aspiration from a tender age. As a kid born in a relatively privileged household, there was no urgency to feel the void of necessity which our previous generations were compelled to. This led to us pursuing so-called “authentic experiences”, not limited to just govt services but in all spheres of life.
We are bestowed with the idea that we are special and we have a unique identity. Our understanding of life conflicts with the very notion that identity is given by symbols surrounding us and not something we create, as postulated by Pierre Bourdieu. This is the reason we find many disillusioned officers working for the govt who thought that they were chasing some authentic dream, only to be crushed by the homogeny and the monotony that every job offers. No wonder people dropping out of jobs are more than ever now.
We also hear cases, where after completing top degrees from medical sciences; some doctors have preferred civil services. The famous example being Roman Saini, who is currently the poster boy of government service exams and the co-founder of Unacademy app. Ironically he left his job as an Assistant Collector to be an entrepreneur himself.
Why Many Of Our Parents Are Fixated Over Public Sector jobs?
We should not be too critical of our parents when they push us for entrance exams for government jobs, because all they want is the best for us. Most of the parents of the present generation were born at a time when the government sector was the main recruiter in those pre-liberalisation days. The dependency only decreased as the economy opened up in the 1990s and the job scenario diversified with the emergence of the IT and corresponding sectors.
Therein created a gap between us and our parents; you might be doing well for a corporate firm or you may be intend ing to pursue a technical course, nevertheless, they would find it hard to relate to your work. It all boils down to the over specialisation of labour in corporate spaces. In short, what you do makes little sense to your parents.
If Karl Marx would have been alive, he would have said: “the alienation you suffer from your work has been transcended to your parents”. If you find this analogy tough, let me try and explain to you in a more simplistic manner. When you tell your parents you are a peon/joint secretary/stenographer/chief engineer of PWD(Public Works Department), they can understand easily. Try telling them that you are the chief analyst in operations of automobile software developing solutions for third party Vehicle vendor (I might have exaggerated a bit).
Why Assamese Parents Are Obsessed With Govt/Public Sector Jobs?
When I say parents I am not here singling out your mother, father or any other relatives. I actually mean the state of affairs of our societal notions. Assamese middle-class parents fair equally in embracing the hype associated with these jobs. They also have a deeper connection with the state machinery. A postcolonial hangover, one can say.
A new educated middle class emerged under the British rule in Assam as a result of changes introduced by the colonial administration. As published in the essay by Apurba Kr Baruah on the topic of ‘Ethnic Identities and Middle Class in North-East India’ the introduction of western education, liberal constitutional democracy and the capitalist path of development created a situation in which the traditional elites lost power. The traditional elites were a part of pre-literate chiefdoms with loose systems of self-governing arrangements in the pre-British era, as published by Amalendu Guha in his book Planter to Swaraj. The chiefs governed on the basis of legitimacy derived from their ranks. The British changed the entire dynamics and created an emerging western educated middle class. In today’s North-East, this class has established hegemony.
But, this new emerging middle class had neither the economic resources of the capitalists nor the numbers of the proletariat to be able to exercise political power. They also had another competition, as the pre-British Assam had hardly had any formal schooling and Bengalis were exposed to western education. The Bengalis had an advantage over many occupations that began with the introduction of colonial administration, which ultimately brought in a situation where they came to dominate the bureaucracy and also other professions, as Mr. Baruah sees it. It is only when the local population began to develop competence through the spread of education that they started competing in the area of professions and bureaucracy and found their footing with an organized voice.
However, the lack of capital in the new Asomiya middle class caused them to fail in making a significant dent in other areas like trade and business. With small capital in hand, they could not hope to seriously challenge big businesses, but only education and this created aspirations of becoming dominant in the non-capital intensive sector. This is one of the reasons which motivated the middle class to pursue ethnic politics by appealing emotionally to the masses. This can also be considered as one of the reasons where we developed the consciousness in our psyche through paranoia that representation in govt services will maintain the status quo we have established so far.
So What Can We Do About It?
Alladin had to give up the genie as it was the genie that was in control of Aladdin’s behaviour and not his true self. We have to let go of our genie – that is this naive hope that govt jobs are easy and stable and we are all entitled to one. This demeans the actual hard work the people associated in the state machinery do from top to bottom. If you are a true aspirant, don’t settle for these sellout ideas as it would lead you to nowhere.
We also have to embrace the demands of the corporate industry, its work culture. Parents have to also ease up on the pressure and understand that there are various things one can pursue if one has the right skills and adequate pre-requisite for the industry they are about to enter.
With the new market economy and digital revolution coming up, we have to utilise the tools to grow our businesses and take part in the contemporary happenings. We have already seen positive growth in the businesses especially in Guwahati and other towns in Assam with the advent of internet services. The Assam Govt has inaugurated North East Skill Centre (NESC) under its Skill, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Dept in collaboration with ITE Educational Services (UTEES) Singapore to provide better skill training to thousands of unemployed youth of the state. We have to make sure we use whatever infrastructure available to us instead of sitting idle and lamenting about the lack of it. Northeast is the land of the unexplored and we must be able to stretch our imagination beyond what is convenient and achievable.
Disclaimer: Here, I am not discussing the honest, efficient and dedicated officers/school teachers/peons/railway employees etc who are doing their work efficiently. I salute their valour and hard work. This article is in no way undermining the dedication and hard work of existing officers and currently dedicated aspirants. But, mostly focuses on the trend associated with government services exams, which many seem to follow blindly.