New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS): Consider these statistics:
* Over the years, the Indian Railways is unable to fill vacancies

* Till November, 2018, 266,790 Group C & D posts were vacant

* Total No of railway employees during 2016-17 was 13,08,323

* Total No of Railway employees during 2008-09 was 13,86,011

* Every year, more employees retired and lesser jobs were generated

* Now, the railways have started the recruitment process for 1.2 lakh vacant posts

Controversially, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has brought a bill to set aside a quota of government jobs for poorer members of India's upper castes. This move has come weeks after the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and months before a challenging General Election.

The Opposition is questioning the timing and the intent of the government. With the government having failed in employment-generation and India seeing years of jobless growth, jobs have become a national priority and an election issue.

Has the government done enough to fill existing government vacancies? One of the world's largest employers is the Indian Railways and even they have failed on the job front. A Right to Information query the Indian Railways reveals a dismal picture with the Railways too.

When asked for a breakdown of number of people retiring and the number of job opportunities generated over the last decade, the data was disturbing. The results show that that from 2008 to 2018, not even in a single year, did more people get jobs than the number of employees who retired. As a result the number of vacancies went up to around 3 lakh.


Staff Retired Recruitment
2007-08 42,149 --
2008-09 40,290 13,870
2009-10 41,372 11,825
2010-11 43,251 5,913
2011-12 44,360 23,292
2012-13 68,728 28,467
2013--14 60,754 31,805
2014-15 59,960 15,191
2015-16 53,654 27,995
2016-17 58,373 19,587
2017-18 -- 19,100


Total No of Railway Employees during 2016-17 was 13,08,323. Eight years ago, in 2008-9, total No of Railway Employees was 13,86,011, which translates into the number of employees coming down by 77,688 in 8 years. According to the Railways, as on 01.09.2018, 2,66,790 (Provisional) of Group C and erstwhile Group D posts are vacant over zonal Rlys. And this doesn't include Group A and Group B services.

Category of Railway Employees No of Employees in Year 2008-9 No of Employees in Year 2016-17
Group 'A' 8,382 9,741
Group 'B' 8,059 6,598
Group 'C' 9,13,343 121,11,372
Group 'D' 4,56,227 80,612
Total 13,86,011 13,08,323

Last year with general elections around the corner, the government went into an overdrive. Late last year, the Railways had started the recruitment process for 1.2 lakh vacant posts of Group C, D, which will be concluded this year. But still it is less than half of the vacant posts in the Railways.

Yearwise empanelment is as under:

2008-2009 13,870
2009-2010 11,825
2010-2011 5,913
2011-2012 23,292
2012-2013 28,467
2013-2014 31,805
2014-2015 15,191
2015-2016 27,995
2016-2017 19,587
2017-2018 19,100