India has been rocked by multiple scandals involving leaked exams this year, and the country’s government has scrambled to contain the fallout each time.
The distress caused by the leaks of questions on entrance exams for government jobs and higher education highlights the country’s deep inequality.
India’s economy is growing at an impressive rate, but much of the growth has occurred in the services sector, while growth in the labor-intensive manufacturing sector has stalled. It means there are not enough jobs for the youth of the world’s most populous nation. Nearly half of Indians still toil on farms, and a vast majority of private jobs do not provide the stability or social security benefits of formal employment.
In light of this, government jobs are a ticket to a brighter future and entrance tests offer a promise of escape from crushing inequality. The hope for some families is that if they invest resources in a child who studies hard and gets a government job, the family can achieve a degree of upward mobility.
Many of the young people we spoke to for this article about the frequency of exam leaks said they had given themselves a window of several years, stretching into their late 20s, to keep trying, year after year, in exams to qualify for government jobs.
Their lives revolve around test preparation and the ecosystem of tutoring centers and study spaces that has sprung up to meet demand. For many, this preparation becomes their life. When age catches up with them, they become cogs in the system: running study centers, tutoring others who are trying to achieve what they could not.
The numbers highlight the ferocity of the competition.
The most sought-after jobs, in the central government’s civil service, are beyond the reach of many. Last year, there were 1.3 million applicants for 1,000 of these positions.
Competition for other jobs is also cutthroat.
Two years ago, more than 10 million people applied for about 35,000 railway jobs, and their anger over procedural issues affecting the exams escalated into violence.
This year, more than 650,000 people sat the test to become bank clerks, competing for only 4,500 openings.
Indian newspapers have frequently published stories about people — tens of thousands of whom hold Ph.D.s and master’s degrees — applying for jobs that do not require even a high school education.
The frequent leaks of exam questions have made it clear that some applicants have had an unfair advantage.
Nearly five million people registered for an exam in February, vying for 60,000 jobs as police constables in Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of about 240 million. The results were invalidated when it became clear that the questions had been leaked and sold.
Six months later, millions of applicants needed to go through the same routine again: sleepless nights preparing for the test; leaving their villages for towns and cities to sit the exam; and then waiting for the news of the results and whether they had been successful.
If not, they will need to try again next year.
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