Over 46,000 postgraduates and 6,000 graduates along with 1.2 lakh candidates who have studied up to class 12 applied for a job posting with the Haryana government. These many candidates applied for the job posting of a sweeper to clean offices of the Haryana government departments, corporations, boards and civic bodies.
The people who are selected will also have to clean, sweep and remove garbage from public spaces, roads and buildings. The advertisement for this job profile did not specify the number of positions available.
The job position is contractual in nature. The job applications were open from August 6 till September 2. Applicants will also have to give consent that if selected they will be posted only in their home district, as per news reports.
"A contractual sweeper hired by the government departments, boards and corporations through the HKRN pool will get paid about Rs 15,000 per month," an HKRN official told The Hindustan Times.
Officials said chances of people applying for the job mistakenly were very less, pointing out that the job description was clear enough about the work people were expected to do in the role of a sweeper.
Overwhelmingly high number of educated candidates applied for this position, though contractual, through the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRN), the state government's outsourcing agency.
Manish Kumar, a postgraduate with diploma in business studies, and his wife Roopa, a qualified teacher also applied for the job opening. Manish said that they get barely Rs 10,000 a month in private schools or companies.
"Here, there's a glimmer of hope for regular employment in future. Plus, sweeping isn't a full-day job, so we can pursue other work during the day," he was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
Another job applicant said that for her, applying for this position is a last resort.
She said that her family has refused to fund further studies or coaching as she faced setbacks in her attempts to secure a government job through the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC).