Who Suffers When the Government Pushes for Contractual Jobs?

Indians have always viewed government jobs to be their safest resort for job security. However, with time, things have changed, and the governments have not hesitated to push people into the ‘chakravyuh’ (complexity) of working under contracts or outsourcing work via private companies. 

The practice of pushing people into contractual jobs is not new. For instance, a report on India’s labour market suggests that 85% of the 17 million new formal sector jobs created between 2009-10 and 2011-12 offered no employment benefits and social security. Hirings started to be made under samvida (contract) across government departments like health, education, and electricity, among others. Although people already worked under gazetted posts in these departments, to increase human power and cut costs simultaneously, the Union and several state governments started hiring people on a contract of three-ten years to be renewed every year or periodically in some cases. 

Contractualising rather than releasing vacancies helps the government in several ways. For starters, the salaries paid to contractual workers are much lesser as compared to regularised employees. The Wire spoke to several permanent and contractual workers who confirmed that for a teacher who works as an instructor under contract in a primary school, the salary is Rs 7,000. For the same job, had it been a regular employee, the salary would have been at least Rs 65,000. There is a massive difference — the salary for regular employees doing the same job is nearly nine times higher. Furthermore, this arrangement absolves the government of its responsibility to offer contractual workers benefits like pension, house rent allowance, and leaves, which are typically granted to regular employees.

Scale of contractualisation 

Right before every election, several state governments such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh include the issue of these workers in their manifesto and have even gone to the extent of promising them regular jobs, only to refrain from doing so post elections. 

As of now, there are over 1,10,000 contractual workers in Rajasthan and at least 1,84,000 in Madhya Pradesh. Although these numbers highlight the grim picture of people working under contracts with minimum salaries, this is not it. 

Just like the big corporates, the state governments have now resorted to outsourcing most of the employees. Outsourcing is a process wherein the department hires a company to get the work done by paying them a lump sum amount rather than dealing directly with the workers. The company in turn gives compensation as per their will to the workers hired for the job.

Pradeep Singh from Madhya Pradesh who works as a contractual employee in the energy department says:

“There is no count on how many people are working on an outsourced basis. The government on one hand released notifications saying they would pay us 90% of the salary of the regular employees, and on the other has only decreased the number of people on contract.” 

Singh has been a contractual worker since 2013 and runs a family of six people and is the sole bread earner in the family.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its manifesto before the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh even promised that it would regularise all the contractual jobs. It specifically mentioned that the instructors (primary teachers who teach all the subjects) should be given permanent positions. However, seven years after the promise, instructors still work on a meagre salary of Rs 7,000 under contract. 

On the other hand, Rajasthan has had five different governments over the past 25 years, with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress having held power. In recent years, before every election both the parties have made promises to contractual workers regarding regularisation of jobs. 

However, despite massive protests, hunger strikes, and hundreds of letters to different authorities, their condition remains the same.

“Every government promises us a permanent job. In this hope, many have died, some were tired of waiting for the government to take some action, and others still work hoping to be given a permanent job. To date, we manage our families with a salary of Rs 7,000-10,000,” Ramjit Patel, a contractual worker from Karauli, Rajasthan said.

Different states, different departments but same story 

Hiralal Gurjar is a resident of Barmer, Rajasthan. For the past 11 years, he has been working as a computer operator under the state health department. He is the sole earning member of a family of six. Gurjar has lost count of the number of protests he has participated in over the years. Despite this, he goes to work every day, holding onto the hope that his situation will improve in the future.

Although his job is of a computer operator, his seniors, and the regular employees compel him to do several other menial jobs as well. Gurjar says: 

“I work for literally everybody in the health centre. From doctors to other employees, my role is not restricted to that of a computer operator. Back in 2016, after rigorous protests, our salaries were increased from Rs 6,500 to Rs 8,500. But since then, our salaries have not increased.”

Last year, the Rajasthan government had even released a notification to regularise 2,532 contractual employees who were working in the health department as computer operators. Following this, their documents were also verified. However, there was a change in government at the end of 2023, and the computer operators in health centres of the state were once again left high and dry. 

In Madhya Pradesh, a different scenario has unfolded. Pradeep joined the state energy department on a contract basis in 2013. However, his and his colleagues’ struggles with the system have been relentless ever since. The first shockwave hit in the same year, when 180 people in the department were abruptly terminated from their service. Pradeep says:

“The department just fired them in three years. Although their contract was also limited to that tenure, this created a lot of fear in us. We were from middle-class families and could not afford to lose our jobs after our family felt secure that we were working for the government.” 

In 2016, the contractual workers of Madhya Pradesh achieved their first significant victory, securing an agreement which merely guaranteed that they were working under a contract of the state government. For the workers who were being given a three-year contract, there was no provision for leaves throughout the year, not even maternity leaves. After 2016, these were included in the provision for contractual employees and their salaries went up from Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000.

In 2018, the Madhya Pradesh government increased the salaries of contractual workers to 90% of those received by regular employees. Additionally, they were allocated a 40% quota for all vacancies in regular jobs released by the government.

In 2023, before the assembly elections, the government further amended the policy to make the service of these employees active until 62 years of age and also promised salaries equivalent to that of regular employees. All the provisions were to be the same apart from their work under a three-year contract renewal. 

The condition of contractual workers in Uttar Pradesh is even worse. Vikram Singh, who has been working as an instructor for a primary school in Gorakhpur spoke to The Wire about the sad state of affairs. He says: 

“Time and again, we have fought against the government but despite promises, our demands remain unfulfilled.”

On May 29, 2017, the BJP had posted on its X handle that the instructors would be given a permanent position. 

Back in 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Pariyojana Shiksha Parishad — a government body that looks into education policies and rules of primary and secondary education — had proposed that the salaries of employees be increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 17,000. The government had even accepted this proposal but the same was not reflected when the employees received their salaries. Their salaries did increase from Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,500, but this fell short of the promise made.

“Forget about the promise of a permanent job, our salaries have decreased since 2017. The government promised and we brought them back to power. But everything was forgotten and we had to continue our fight. We went to courts, and Allahabad high court gave a decision in our favour. In 2023, the high court had ordered the government to clear our arrears since 2017. Following this, the government even tried approaching the Supreme Court but was denied. To date, the government owes me and nearly 25,000 instructors across Uttar Pradesh around Rs eight-ten lakh,” says Vikram. 

Few died fighting, others quit and opted for private jobs

The Wire spoke to multiple contractual employees working in different departments in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Apart from low salaries and lack of job security, there was another common link between them — oppression and harassment at the workplace from the regular government employees —  only because they were under contracts or for their involvement in protests.

In several instances, these workers narrated that they had to face a social boycott for their fight against the system. In other cases, they were asked by people, even those who were junior to them to do their jobs, and not to forget, all this amid a weak redressal system. 

Hailing from Sultana village in Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan, Ashok Ram used to work in the education department of the state government under contract. He was one of the thousands of protesting samvida karmis (contractual workers) who did not quit and kept working hoping that the government would “hopefully give him what is rightfully his”. However, fate had different plans.

On July 13 this year, Ram was in his office. Before lunch, he started to feel uneasy due to chest pain. Although he was rushed to the hospital, he passed away. He was only 34 years old and was survived by his wife and two kids.

Ram’s brother Durgaram Sahi spoke to The Wire about the situation of the family since his death. He says:

“He was my younger brother. He always used to talk about how soon his financial condition would get better. Since his salary right now was very low, he often had to borrow from relatives, but he was running the family somehow. We did not even get any kind of compensation from the government. We always thought he was a government employee. We only understood that he was a different kind of employee when his office people collected some money and gave it to us saying that this was some help from their end.” 

Even as Durgaram spoke to this reporter, he was at the collectorate where he was about to plead to the authorities to give his sister-in-law a job because there was no other earning member in the family. He has already made numerous visits to government offices seeking help, but unfortunately, there is no legal provision that can provide him with what he needs.

Not all battles fought are won, and not every soldier stays on the battlefield till the end. Such is the story of Vishnu Narayan, who used to work as a computer operator in the health department in Rajasthan. Vishnu quit his government job and joined the private sector and is happier now. He says:

“Our salary was Rs 7,500 and that too was mostly never given on time. I have seen days where we had to wait for four-five months before we got our salaries. The ration guy would be at my doorstep demanding money. Relatives would continuously taunt me saying I was in a farzi (bogus) government job.” 

Thousands like Narayan have left their contractual government jobs. For instance, back in 2013, the number of instructors in Uttar Pradesh was over 42,000 which has now reduced to only 25,000. The ones who stay have to do multiple jobs such as running a vegetable stall and driving a rickshaw, to meet their families’ needs. And if this was not enough, they also continue their protests at intervals reminding the system that they exist and must be heard. 

Mirroring the corporate structure 

Big corporates are always in need of manpower. While earlier recruitments to the big steel and automobile plants used to happen via a proper recruitment process and the workers used to secure a permanent job, corporates have gradually shifted to contract-based work structure over the years. 

Vijay Francis, a resident of Jharkhand, works at one of the country’s largest automobile plants. After completing his 12th grade in 2021, he enrolled in a three-year contractual programme touted as a training initiative by the company. Interestingly, Francis does the same work as regular employees, who earn Rs 25,000 with experience-based increments, whereas trainee employees like him receive around Rs 10,000, often delayed and without any prospect of a raise.The company gets away without giving them any job security, a lesser pay scale, and no additional benefits. 

Now, the uncertainty surrounding the programme’s outcome has left the future of hundreds of participants, including Francis, bleak. He says:

“We do the same job that a permanent worker does. Our shift timings are also the same. The difference comes in when we talk about the salary paid to us, and the treatment meted out post the training period.”

Francis adds:

“Earlier, the qualification requirement used to be ITI. Now, it has been changed to either ITI or passing the 12th board exams.”

His training would be over by February 2025. As of now, he’s not sure whether he will have a job. Many of his colleagues have even left the training programme owing to this uncertainty. Others wait to watch their fate. 

Notably, a similar structure is being applied in the government sector jobs now — temporary contracts, termination whenever the officers feel like it, and a low pay scale with no benefits.

Samriddhi Sakunia is an independent journalist.