For any citizen, a government job is a godsend. It carries with it power, a decent salary, pension for life and more. Yet, less than 38 lakh posts exist in central government service and not more than 32 lakh people form the workforce. The central and state government employees across the country total four and a half crore – out of a population of 135 crore — and nearly 10 percent of the Union Budget resources are spent on its own employees.
Government employees as a whole are a well-tended lot for their entire life. Added to this is the scope for additional income by many of these segments via corruption that is a steadily increasing trend from village panchayat level to the central secretariat. The thumb rule is, pay a bribe and get things done. Those who form and run governments for five years have little interest in setting such wrongs right. At the same time, joblessness among the educated in India has spiralled and the central government itself has admitted a joblessness rate of 12 per cent for this segment alone. It is in this context that a recommendation from the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, submitted this week, is to be viewed. It wants the retirement age of government employees raised. The Centre had raised the retirement age from 58 to 59 last year and chances are that it could now be raised to 65. The reason cited in favour of this is the increase in life expectancy among citizens due to better health infra.
An argument often advanced in favour of an increase in retirement age for government employees is that they get half the basic salary as pension after retirement even as they sit back at home. After their demise, their life partner would get this pension. “So, make them work for more years.” The counter-argument is related to the plight of the jobless youths. If nearly five per cent of the population is in government, this is more than the requirement and yet the governmental wheels run slow. Administrative reforms are long overdue and the Modi government failed to act on this vital front. The result is that the whole scenario linked to the bureaucracy is largely vitiated. Unless India finally gets a visionary leadership, rather than those who warm up the chair for a few years and scoot from the scene, the nation is bound to suffer. It is important that young blood is inducted at all levels.
