The recent recruitments in Kargil district show that the ratio of the available post and aspirants were fretful – the situation of Leh district may not be differing. For every single post, the ratio was 1:50. For the post of 67 GLT total, 3,533 aspirants had appeared; the competition in other posts was not different. This is the picture of single district Kargil. Collectively of both the districts, the picture may be worsening. The annoying thing was that some posts were advertised in 2012 and are filled in 2020. We frequently hear annoying news from different states that, the over-qualified candidates like MBAs, Engineers, and Post Graduates are aspiring for Class IV jobs. But we were out of the idea that within a short time we also have to face such a catastrophic situation, due to dearth of job opportunities.

I am not here to demean the low-waged jobs, every job has its dignity and every individual has the right to choose their carrier. It’s not the issue of individual, but we need to ponder here from the general perspective. Why in a small region, the highly qualified aspirants are forcing to opt low-waged jobs?  We need to understand here, that those highly qualified aspirants are those, who had completed their degrees from the outside region after spending huge amount of money and go through mental and physical trauma due to harsh urban lifestyle. If we see education as an investment, we expect a good product or a good rate of return. Either at individual or social level, the more your qualifications means the more you have invested and expects a good rate of return. But what about the youths of Ladakh, why their rate of return is too much low, that a Post Graduate student feels privileged after being selected for Class IV. Can we say a Class IV job is a rate of return of the Post Graduate Degree?

When we analyze, we observe that these aspirants are mostly from the age group born between 1980 to 1996, we often called them Millennial or Y Generation. We also need to understand that Y Generation is the largest educational refugees in the history of Ladakh and pursuing diverse courses in different parts of the country and abroad. The struggle of Ladakhi students is needed to acknowledge. The nature of migration of Ladakhi students is different from other regions. In a ‘different’ sense, we are forcing to take migration which the eminent sociologist Everett Spurgeon Lee classified as ‘Push factor’. Ladakh has a dearth of higher education institutions within the region. This is added by absence of seat reservation in the Universities of J&K. Despite the students of Ladakh show their Excellency and ability by competing with their counterparts at national and international level.

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Ladakh being hilly, boarded, isolated, and economically drought region is still struggling to transmute higher education from elitism to massification, and the absence of educational opportunities is the biggest hurdle in this process of transformation. In addition, Ladakh being the largest tribal region, the students are struggling to adjust in complex urban societies. Facing racist remarks from fellow people and language barriers are some major challenges Ladakhi students face daily outside their homes. Despite the harsh economic condition, the parents are sending their wards with the optimism that after getting higher education, they will become the earning source for their families. But alas! It’s not handy for the youths due to the inadequate job market in the region.

Earlier in Ladakh, there were advertising job’s frequently by the district recruitment board. And the JKPSC and JKSSB were the two major consuming sources of employment for the youths with higher degrees. But after the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, these recruitment boards have closed their doors for the aspirants from Ladakh, which is another drawback for the aspiring youths. Now the JKSSB is advertising thousands of posts for the aspirants from Jammu and Kashmir, but Ladakhi youths are looking at them with yearning.

After the new political development of Union Territory, the youths are expecting that their waiting for good days will come to an end, but their perception seems wrong. It’s almost more than five years that no major advertisements for the job are made by the government for the educated youths of Ladakh. It’s a disastrous episode that even after completing the one year of UT, there is no clear policy for recruitment.

Every year thousands of students are completing their degrees, and the process of outbound mobility is still continuing. The more shocking and disheartened for students from Ladakh is that there is no one caring for them and not a single nodal officer is appointed by the administration in the major cities like Srinagar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Dehradun, etc., where majority of Ladakhi students take shelter. Unfortunately, they do not have any data that how many students are studying outside Ladakh. This shows the non-seriousness of local administration towards the youths.

The incompetent administration and hazy policies of government forcing the youths to face various challenges. They are neither looking themselves in any respectable position, nor able to stand in hope of their parents.

There is a need for drastic reform in the government policies to build the confidence of the student community. The administration needs to come with a clear design of recruitment policies and need to collect data of every stratum of education level from higher secondary to Doctorate level in both professional and non-professional courses. The government also needs to support the students from poor socio-economic backgrounds by providing them reasonable financial assistance. The recruitment processes need to speed up with transparency and the available vacancies need to be filled up at urgent basis, so that mentally tortured unemployed youths will find some sort of relief. 

The article appeared in the print version of Voice of Ladakh on December 14 2020. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Voice of Ladakh.