In Goa’s 60th year of Liberation and at a time when the State government is recruiting 10,000 new employees across various departments, 227 persons, who are children of freedom fighters are demanding to be absorbed in government service and have threatened that if the process of absorbing them in government service is not completed by the end of November, they will intensify their protests from December 1. The demand is being made as the government has a scheme under which children of freedom fighters are eligible for government jobs. The scheme has been extended up to February 28, 2022.
Of the 227 children of freedom fighters who are still to get government jobs, there are many who have crossed the age of 45, which is the cut off for recruitment in government service, and some are even in their 50s. This group, however, still stands a chance as the government has relaxed the age qualification to 55 for them. The government had also reserved 2 per cent of jobs in government departments for children of freedom fighters so that they can be accommodated without having to compete with the general category. Despite all this, there are still a number of them who remain without jobs.
This is not a new demand from the freedom fighters and their children, and over the past years such protests have been taking place at irregular intervals. This year itself, in January, the same group had been on a fast unto death demanding government jobs but had withdrawn it after a written assurance that their demands would be met. Now, nine months later, the freedom fighters’ children came together to remind the government of that assurance, as since January just 23 of them received appointment letters.
While the freedom fighters and their children are seeking what the government has promised them, this also has political overtones as neither the party in government nor the opposition parties would want to be on the wrong side of the freedom fighters, especially not just months away from an election. Earlier this year, while the Chief Minister had assured in the Assembly that the children of freedom fighters would be recruited in service, it was the party president who had taken the letter to the fasting freedom fighters. On the other hand the opposition leader had suggested that the government should bend rules to absorb them. The bottom line in this is that while the government will take credit for giving the jobs the opposition does not want to be left out.
The other group protesting on a related issue was made up of part-time instructors demanding regularisation of all special teachers, working under the Samgrah Shiksha Abhiyan. Their demand included inclusion of part-time teachers for implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) on a regular basis. Their contention is that their contracts are being renewed for almost a period of eight years and many are graduates, a few double graduates and holding masters degrees, and that though they are designated as ‘part-time instructors, they work hours just like the regular teachers. These too have been seeking regularisation of services for a long time. And here too politics is playing its role, as political parties have sent lent support to the protesting group.
When the process of recruiting 10,000 persons is on, can’t the government find jobs for those it has promised and those whose contracts are being renewed for the past eight years?
