'UPSC industry is like drug cartel': Sanjeev Sanyal as civil services aspirant commits suicide in Delhi

The UPSC aspirant industry is like the drug cartel and it is devouring our youth, noted economist Sanjeev Sanyal warned on Saturday. His warning came after a civil services aspirant from Maharashtra allegedly committed suicide in Delhi. The death comes amid concerns about the living conditions of UPSC aspirants in coaching hubs in Delhi. 

Last month, three UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) aspirants died by drowning in a basement of a coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar. After this, the 26-year-old woman, a native of Maharashtra's Akola, was found hanging on July 21 at her PG at Old Rajinder Nagar. A purported suicide note also surfaced online.

"As I have been warning for some time, the UPSC aspirant industry is like the drug cartel. It is devouring our youth," Sanyal said. "Do not divert or dilute this issue by turning it into a general discussion on unemployment or the efficiency of the bureaucracy. These are our most talented youth and can find other jobs with ease." 

Sanyal said the coaching mafia and the socio-cultural pressure to succeed at this are the issues. "Knee-jerk top-down "regulation" will not solve it. It requires an honest public discussion about the absurdity of the social pressure that is leading to this," he added. 

The economist, a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has been speaking about the large number of youths wasting their time trying to get into civil services. He believes that only those who really want to serve the nation should go for the UPSC, others should put in their efforts in different areas where the success rate is much higher. 

In a tweet on July 30, Sanyal said he was glad that the sheer absurdity of the UPSC aspirant industry was being finally exposed. "It is extraordinary that these coaching institutions are able to sell a product with a 99.92% failure rate for lakhs of rupees per year. Literally, anything else would work out better. I'm sure that "survivorship bias" is not taught in these institutes."

The economist was the first in recent times to spark a debate when he said the "UPSC was a waste of time". However, he faced criticism for his views, with many backing the examination process and bureaucrats.

In March this year, Sanyal said a lot of young Indians waste their prime years preparing for the UPSC examinations when only a few thousand make the cut. "...I still think way too many young kids who have so much energy are wasting their time trying to crack the UPSC. I'm not saying you don't want people to take the exam. Yes, every country needs a bureaucracy. That's perfectly fine. But I think lakhs of people spending their best years trying to crack an exam, where a tiny number of few thousand people actually [are] going to get in, makes no sense." 

"If they put the same energy into doing something else, we would be winning more Olympic gold medals, we would be seeing better movies being made, we would see better doctors, we would see more entrepreneurs and scientists and so on."