By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: The Rajiv Employment Mission (Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu), the most ambitious project of the government of Andhra Pradesh to provide 15 lakh jobs to the unemployed youths, expectedly generated lot of excitement among job aspirants. But the Muslim community, though having a huge number of unemployed youths compared to other communities, has not shown much interest in the recruitment drive.
This lack of interest is despite the fact that the Chief Minister Mr. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has on many occasions reiterated that above 50 per cent jobs will be ensured for SC, ST, BC and Minority candidates under “Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu” (RYK), in the next three years. Last year after the announcement of the program the CM Reddy while addressing a meeting organized by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) said that, Muslims will get their due share in the 15 lakh jobs to be created in the state in the next three years under the Rajiv Education and Employment Mission. A mechanism will be set up to see that Muslim youth get their share in the jobs to be created in the private sector under the mission, he had said.
Hindrances:
Lack of Publicity
But it seems that chief minister’s repeated assertions have few takers among the Muslim youths. The reason, many believe, is lack of publicity about this program among the Muslim youths. There is little awareness about this government’s pet project of providing 15.35 lakh jobs in government and private sectors. While the cyber cafes were crowded with Muslim boys and girls seeking minority scholarships, those making an online registration for RYK are few. Large numbers of the Muslim youths are still in dark regarding this scheme.
Online application
The RYK scheme is specially meant for those youths who are skilled labor but are illiterate. That is why half of the jobs from the scheme target are for skilled labors in government and private sector. Many Muslim youths live in the city who are unemployed come under this category. But the online method of registration for the jobs is confusing for many youths who are skilled labor but illiterate, they can hardly do computing leave alone online registration.
Online application box rejects certain areas of old city
One more important problem being faced is address entry, many youths from old city have complained that there applications are getting rejected when certain municipal ward numbers like 16, 17, 18, 19 are keyed in. The wards 16 to 23 cover areas like Malakpet, Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta, Bahadurpura and Charminar come in the old city with huge Muslim population.
Contractual job, private sector are other distractors
Majority of Muslims is also shying away from this scheme because of the fear of landing into jobs in contract basis. As major share of the jobs are going to come from the private sector, many youths are believing that private sector will not be able to pay them well for there skilled profession.
Mohd Arif is an air conditioner mechanic. He recently applied for the job under this scheme. He told TCN that he got selected for the job by a private company but the salary offer put by the company was Rs 6,000 which is much less than Rs 8,000 which he earns monthly by doing the job independently.
Muslim groups running awareness campaigns
Many Muslim organizations are doing their bit to increase the awareness about the program among the Muslim youths. All of them are facing one common problem while convincing Muslims to apply for the job scheme: Majority of them are interested in government jobs, not in the private sector. They are rather satisfied to remain unemployed if they can’t get a government job under the scheme.
It will be interesting to see if the government will keep its promise of providing 50% of the jobs to the minorities and BC youths considering the cold response showed by the Muslim youths and government’s failure to create a mechanism to attract Muslim youths towards this scheme.