Summary of this article:
Job seekers say outsourcing is limiting their access to stable employment
Over 26,000 jobs outsourced across departments in recent years
Government calls it a cost-cutting measure, pledges new recruitment drive
The Jammu and Kashmir government’s outsourcing of jobs has been criticised by unemployed youth, who say it is reducing employment avenues in the Union Territory.
Authorities have acknowledged that joblessness is a major challenge due to limited opportunities. However, as a cost-cutting measure, the government has outsourced nearly 26,000 jobs over the past two years.
According to last year’s economic survey, the unemployment rate on usual status, which is chronic unemployment, has hovered between 6.1 per cent in 2023-24 to 6.7 per cent in 2019- 20.
Recruitment to government jobs has been slow. With Jammu and Kashmir heavily dependent on central grants to meet even basic salary expenses, the Finance Department has cautioned that finances are too strained to support further hiring.
Sahil Manzoor, 22, who completed a specialised nursing course last year, says outsourcing in the health department has further reduced opportunities. “Jobs are being advertised, but the numbers are very limited. If the government continues outsourcing the few jobs we have, there will hardly be any vacancies left,” says Manzoor, a resident of Chadoora in central Kashmir.
Outsourcing has extended across departments, including vocational trainers, sanitation staff, programmers, teleoperators, and IT professionals. Many positions have been filled through companies operating outside the Union Territory.
Official data shows over 7,000 posts in the Floriculture Department and a large number of sanitation jobs in the Housing and Urban Development Department have been outsourced. Several thousand posts in government medical colleges have also been filled through similar arrangements.
While the government maintains that outsourcing supplements regular staff and follows established financial rules, opposition leaders have criticised the move.
A senior Finance Department official defended the policy, saying it helps cut costs. “Several corporations were running at a loss. By outsourcing their operations, we have saved money that would otherwise have gone into permanent hiring,” the official said.
“Contracts were awarded for services such as sanitation, and drivers were hired for government fleets. This has improved the functioning of these corporations,” the official added.
Authorities have maintained that the outsourcing was carried out through approved mechanisms, “such as e-tendering and prescribed Government of India and UT guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability.”
The government has also recently constituted committees to outsource the assets of the tourism department, and the outsourcing policy states that “this helps improve service delivery, reduce public expenditure, and allows manpower to be deployed according to workload, project duration, and seasonal or scheme-based requirements.”
However, the policy has also drawn the criticism of political parties, while the youth have been largely averse to turn to self-employment avenues due to the delay by the banks to approve their loans. The authorities have admitted the slack. In January this year, chief secretary Atal Dulloo, while chairing the Union Territory Level Bankers' Committee (ULBC) meeting , expressed displeasure that the “departments and sponsoring agencies have not performed up to mark in sponsorship of cases, which led to low performance of banks in disbursement of credit and coverage of beneficiaries under employment generation schemes.”Senior Congress leader, G N Monga, says that the persistently high level of unemployment in Kashmir makes the outsourcing unviable.
“Unemployment in Kashmir is alarmingly high. At a time like this, the policy needs a serious rethink, as outsourcing risks depriving the local youth of job opportunities,” he says.Former minister and chairman of the People’s Democratic Front (PDF), Hakeem Yaseen, criticised the policy, saying that it would help in lending favours to the people who are close to the government.
“This policy only allows those close to the government to be accommodated. The youth deserve a fair and transparent chance to secure employment,” he says.“The youth are frustrated with the government policies. There is a need to create employment, not to shrink the avenues that already exist,” says Tafazul Bilal, a student activist.Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has, however, also said that the government would work to fill around 30,000 vacant posts this year “through transparent and time-bound recruitment processes” in coordination with the recruitment agencies of the Service Selection Board (SSB) and the Public Service Commission (PSC). He has, however, referred to outsourcing as an additional opportunity for the youth.
