What 12 deaths in Jharkhand excise recruitment drive tell about India's job crisis

Sept. 3, 2024, 8:53 a.m.

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India launched a probe Tuesday after 12 applicants for coveted government jobs died during physical tests for posts as excise officers, with commentators saying it illustrated the scale of the country’s unemployment crisis.

The young men were among 500,000 applicants vying for just 583 jobs as constables in the government excise department – more than 850 people for each post.

India is the fastest-growing major economy, and the fifth largest, but the world’s most populous country has a jobs crisis to match.

Advertisement India has faced challenges in creating a sufficient number of full-time, well-compensated jobs for its vast population.

Government employment, even at the entry level, is highly sought after, with numerous reports of candidates taking desperate measures to attain a position.

In previous employment drives, individuals have faced significant financial burdens by paying bribes to secure positions, or resorting to purchasing leaked examination papers to gain an advantage in highly competitive entrance exams.

In this case, 12 men died in the past two weeks during a series of 10-kilometre (6.2 mile) races in humid conditions in India’s eastern Jharkhand state.

Jharkhand state chief minister Hemant Soren called the deaths “heartbreaking”, and ordered health experts to examine the “untimely death of these youth, so that such accidents do not happen in future”.

State police chief Anurag Gupta confirmed the fatalities and said investigations had been initiated. The recruitment drive has been suspended.

Jharkhand has some of India’s highest unemployment and poverty rates.

The Times of India newspaper cited medical professionals who reported that numerous applicants had been hospitalized due to low blood pressure brought on by dehydration.

The paper, in its editorial on Tuesday, said the recruitment deaths were “a symptom” of the wider unemployment crisis.

“These aren’t competitions,” it read. “These are pitched battles for survival –- for a stab at securing livelihoods for a working-age people.”