TET-TAT protests

In response to protests by candidates who have cleared the TAT and TET recruitment exams, the Gujarat government recently announced that it would hire 7,500 teachers to permanent positions. While this may appear to have been a victory for the protesters, it falls far short of addressing the state's education crisis: 1,600 schools in Gujarat operate with just one teacher, and the state faces a staggering shortage of 30,000 educators.

The government’s laxity in hiring spans other departments, including health, home, panchayat, and even labour, as well.

For instance, the Gujarat government has disregarded the Centre’s suggestion that it hire 32,000 police personnel, and announced plans to recruit 12,000 personnel. There has been no update on when these appointments can be expected to occur.

Government hospitals in districts such as Dahod do not have doctors, thanks to the high number of vacancies for Class 1 Medical Officers. According to government data, there are 1,250 vacancies for surgeons, physicians and paediatric posts in the state. 

This is not a new issue. As previously reported by Gujarat Samachar Digital, as much as 90% of rural medical positions lie vacant. According to Rural Health Statistics data, Gujarat needed 1,088 surgeons, OB-GYN (obstetrics and gynaecology) specialists, physicians and paediatricians in 2005, but only 92 positions were filled. As of 2022, only 9.22% (127 of a total 1,376) positions had been filled.

The government last held a recruitment drive for talatis (revenue officials) in 2018. Since then, there has been no effort made to fill the roughly 18 vacant positions of talati and junior clerk. As a result, there are a number of talatis who are each responsible for several villages.

Coming back to the education department, no new yoga teachers or music teachers have been appointed since 2012. 

Further, there are currently 102 vacancies for the post of principal, 1,152 for that of professors and 132 vacant librarian positions in Gujarat’s 283 grant-in-aid colleges. Similarly, 19 Class 1 positions, 269 Class 2 positions, and 220 Class 3 positions vacant in government colleges. 

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries says that to recruit is to find new people to join a company or an organisation, while to hire is to actually give somebody a job. So, maybe, the government is being very specific in its recruitment announcements. Or, maybe, the state is using appointment announcements as a sop to quell agitations. 

Either could be true. After all, even the labour and employment department, which is responsible for creating jobs, is itself short-staffed by 50%!