Among the 4,000 youngsters who have applied for the 14 jobs of sweeper and sanitary workers, around a hundred are highly qualified.
CHENNAI: 23-year-old Dhansingh Arul, a first class Electrical Engineering graduate has applied for the job of a sweeper at the Tamil Nadu assembly. The engineering graduate, daily wage labourer in Tuticorin, has been without a job for four months now. He told NDTV "I am not getting any job. Though I'm an Engineer I can be a Sweeper also when there is no job. That's why I applied".
Dhanasingh is not alone. Among the around 4,000 youngsters who have applied for the 14 jobs of sweeper and sanitary workers, around a hundred are highly qualified young men and women candidates with MBA, MCA, B Tech, M Com, B Com, BBA and M Phil from across Tamil Nadu.
At his shared space with a few other students on the city outskirts, Dhansingh is seen desperately applying for jobs on his government given laptop. He doesn't have money for internet. His friends help him with portable hotspot. He doesn't have a smart phone. Even his old basic phone has no balance to make calls.
Coming close to elections, the state government calls this "unfortunate" but it wants youngsters to turn entrepreneurs and get self-employed taking advantage of government's single window clearance scheme. The state's Minister for Fisheries and Personnel D Jayakumar told NDTV, "Though it is our duty to provide jobs we can't provide sixty lakh jobs in five years. They should also try private sector. Youngsters want only government jobs as they feel it's a secure job".