Recruitment Scams and Paper Leaks in India: How the deserving youth of India is getting smothered under an obsolete system

"India is an over populous country." This statement is hardly news to anyone, but very few of us know that the average age of an Indian is just 29 years old. Hence, India is a fairly young country with a strong demographic dividend. However, the ambitions and dreams of millions of Indians lie stranded despite their ability and competence.

Each new year brings fresh new hopes for millions of aspirants. These young people have expressed their strong will by deciding to dedicate the prime of their youth to preparing for numerous government examinations. In a country where social class divisions continue to be a notable phenomenon in determining one's future, Government jobs and recruitments offer the only genuine means for attaining an egalitarian society.

Today, even this little scope for upliftment gets marred under the evils of Paper leaks and Recruitment scams. The problem of the youth, in essence, is the problem of the nation, and it is high time we illustrated the grim aspects associated with the Indian "Public Service '' Examinations and the tragic impact it has on the morale of the nation's hard-working citizens.

The Vyapam Scam

The Vyavsaik Parkisha Mandal got set up by the Government of Maharashtra in the 1980s, and it aimed at conducting entrance-level examinations for numerous professional courses. 

In 2009 the question paper for Medical Exams got leaked, and a ruckus erupted. Soon, allegations of irregularities in other exam processes started claiming the headlines of numerous newspapers across the country. There were rumours of the involvement of the "Exam Mafia" and even high-ranking Government officials in these discrepancies. 

The situation took an unexpected turn as the corpse of a 19-year-old MBBS Student, Namrata Damod, got recovered from a railway track. The Police immediately took to the scene and declared that it was a case of suicide. However, the doctor who had committed the autopsy on the girl's body claimed that the evidence suggested she got strangled to death.

There was a public uproar on the matter, and the Chief Minister of the State, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, set up an investigating team comprising the Special Task Force (STF) to examine the matter. 

Akshay Singh, a reporter at Aaj Tak, lost his life under mysterious circumstances while looking into the case. Arun Sharma, the former dean of the Jabalpur Medical College, was found dead in a hotel room without substantial proof of any medical ailment. Sharma was presumably preparing a list of the children who had gained illegal admissions in his college. Between 2009 to 2015, fifty innocent lives related to Vyapam got lost under 'mysterious conditions.' 
The fog cleared when an entire racket consisting of:

- Question Solvers, who gave proxy examinations in place of another candidate;

- Teachers who facilitated the functioning of the mechanism;

- Government Officials who accepted lofty bribes for divulging classified information;

- Finally, those who paid lakhs to get their seats "reserved."

In the Vyapam Case, a senior IPS Officer and the former BJP Education Minister, Laxmi Kanth Sharma, were found complicit in the felony.

Protests over allowing "Aptech" to conduct the JKSSB Exams:

There was a large-scale protest by the Students of Jammu and Kashmir regarding the Government's decision to letting a "blacklisted" company named Aptech conduct the Jammu Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB) Exam.

Aptech has the infamy of being involved in numerous scams like exam rigging and mismanagement. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) fined the company Rs. 1 crore for the felony of 'insider trading.' In January 2023, three 'question solvers' got arrested from their exam center during the UP Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) Exams.

Before that, Aptech got accused of rigging

- Rajasthan Constable Recruitment Process;

- Allahabad High Court National Testing Agency exam; 

- The Assam State Irrigation Department Recruitment exam got mismanaged too.

Despite these serious allegations of corruption and incapacity, there appears to be a lack of any viable reason for allowing "Aptech" to indulge in exams that determine the future of our youth. 

Other shameful incidences of recruitment scams and paper leaks:

Every year, the instances of recruitment scams and rescheduling of examinations owing to paper leaks continue to dishearten millions of job aspirants in our country. 

Here are a few:

- The paper for the Army Recruitment Exam got leaked on February 2021, following which the General Duty Constable examination got postponed;

- Central Board for Secondary Examination (CBSE) in 2018, and Staff Selection Commission (SSC) paper got leaked online;

- Bihar Board's Class 10th Social Science Paper got found circulating over Whatsapp;

- Uttar Pradesh Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) Exam paper got leaked in January;

- The Maths Paper for Uttar Pradesh Diploma In Elementary Education (D. El. Ed.) got leaked 30 minutes before the examination began;

- Rajasthan's Junior Engineer (Civil) Recruitment Scam unfolded in 2020;

- Karnataka Public Service Commission's (KPSC) First Division Assistant Exam paper got leaked.

Recruitment Satyagraha: A symbolic movement to end our slumber?

Taking inspiration from the book "Unto this Last" by John Ruskin, Mahatma Gandhi propagated the idea of 'Satyagraha' as a viable method of passive and non-violent resistance against the British Raj. 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of India's hard-earned independence, yet even now, student factions in India had to launch 'Satyagraha' against the country's fallacious and inefficient recruitment system.

The unemployed youth of Madhya Pradesh carried out a "Recruitment Satyagraha" against their own democratically elected Government and marched to Bhopal, demanding the State Government to fulfill its sectoral vacancies. 

At face value, this event appears to be a meager publicity stunt. In reality, however, this predicament evokes a range of emotions because even in 'free' India, the country's youth get forced to battle against the demons of repeating cases of paper leaks and recruitment scams. 

Why are our Politicians indifferent to the grievances of our youth?

Indian Politicians feel no compulsion to empathize with the plight of jobless young people, as most of these politicians themselves are entitled to lumpsum salaries and perks without a clause seeking their accountability before the masses. 

As the Modi Government unveiled a new parliament to accommodate even more MPs to relish the hard-earned tax money paid by the people (under the charade of legislation), it keeps mum regarding the scope of new recruitments to the deserving youth of its country. 

Every year, various state governments chart up new constituencies to increase the number of MPs and MLAs (without any proof of its requirement). Yet, they brazenly ignore the prospect of recruitment in the public offices that lie vacant year after year. 

Examinations continue getting rescheduled, but the number of attempts and the upper age limit for appearing in these examinations stay fixed. The paper for the Gujarat Panchayat Service Selection Board exam got leaked three times! 

A wake-up call?

Where lies the credibility of alluring terms like “Amritkal,” “Atmanirbharta,” and “Vishwaguru,” when the elected governments of the ‘Independent India’ are incompetent in delivering at least a free and fair method of examination to the meritorious and deserving candidates? It is high time for the Indian Judiciary to get involved and reprimand the public authorities for their lack of accountability to the youth. 

A deserving candidate can perhaps surpass an individual cheater. However, if he must fight an entirely institutionalized system comprising mafias and corrupt politicians to get what he rightfully deserves... We may as well give up on our dreams of ever seeing our country prosper.

https://digpu.com/opinion/recruitment-scams-and-paper-leaks-in-india