Prayagraj: On Saturday (August 8), as Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi held his third ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme, and the first such interaction in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttar Pradesh, the event saw participation of thousands of youngsters who thronged to the venue hours before the dialogue between Gandhi and students began.A group of students, drenched in sweat stood way behind at the venue, amidst the sludge and mud in the freshly rain-soaked K.P. Ground in Prayagraj district, waiting for security clearance so that they could move closer to the stage. The group comprising men and women in their early 30s, held a banner which stated Bhartiya Apprentice Mazdoor Association from Varanasi. Ibran, the president of the Association and its representative, had come with three files stacked with sample documents to explain the group’s grievance regarding full-time, permanent jobs by the Indian Railways.“Under the Congress regime, we would get direct recruitment in the railways. After Modi ji came to power in 2014, those who have retired or are ex-servicemen are being hired on contractual basis. We are running from pillar to post, several of our colleagues have even died by suicide”, Ibran told The Wire. ‘We are tired and feel so helpless’“We are tired and feel so helpless. That’s why we have come here to request Rahul Gandhi to raise this issue inside the parliament. We have enough documents that can be shown in the parliament. With great difficulty, we are barely managing to run our households. Some of us are forced to become roadside vendors, despite being a trained apprentice. What should we should we do next? Should we start selling pakodas?” added Ibran.As reported by Scroll earlier, most of these apprentices, who are skilled railway workers and have completed the railway apprenticeship programme, would earlier be given jobs under The Apprentices Act 1961. However, there is no obligation on the railways to provide jobs to everyone who enlists for the apprenticeship. While the BJP-led Union government did issue a notification regarding 20% quota for such apprentices, students have been demanding that since their skill-set doesn’t have many takers in any other industry, this clearly is not enough.The members of the Bhartiya Apprentice Mazdoor Association at the Chhatron Ki Goonj event venue on Saturday (August 8). Photo: Akanksha Kumar/The Wire“We already have a year of experience and yet our candidature is being ignored. This issue is even more tricky than those concerning Agniveers. There are around 70,000 candidates affected by this, you can imagine the impact on families,” said Adarsh Yadav, another member of the group of railway apprentices who attended the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme on Saturday.At the event site, the messaging by the Congress party focused on the sole issue of unemployment.Slogans such as “Job nahi milega toh sinhasan hilega (if we don’t get a job then thrones will be shaken up)” and “job do nahi toh isteefa do (either give us job or tender your resignation)” were seen on hoardings alongside photos of the party’s central leadership including Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.Some of the taglines took digs at the prime minister Narendra Modi-led government.“Reel mantri, give us real jobs” stated a flexiboard close to the entry gate of the venue, while another one-liner said, “Stop ghosting our future.” Another distinct feature of the venue was the clear stand taken by the party on the issue of violence by Delhi Police against protesters at Jantar Mantar during the recently-concluded month-long protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). “We want jobs not pellet guns,” said a slogan painted in yellow and white near the ticket counter clearly visible to all who were among the attendants of the event.Apart from students who came in groups, there were several individuals who too had their own story of how their lives have been impacted due question paper leaks or the sheer delay in conducting competitive exams within a certain timeframe.While speaking to The Wire, Rahul Kumar, who has been preparing for the Provincial Civil Services (PCS) exam in Prayagraj for the last three years said: “Whichever exam is being conducted, it is not being done in a fair manner. A calendar should be released by the government every year to ensure the recruitment cycle is completed in a time-bound manner. Regular frequency (of exam) and transparency need to be ensured by the government.”‘It’s the responsibility of the government to generate jobs’“Whether someone is pursuing B.Tech or a course at an Industrial Training Institute (ITI), it’s the responsibility of the government to generate a job that suits the skill-set of that individual. For instance, people are spending Rs 2 lakh to pursue a B.Ed course. Yet, for several years, teaching-related vacancies are not coming up”, Kumar further added.“When we sit for an exam conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission (UPESSC) then the paper gets leaked three times and the matter is sent to the court. So, there’s need for transparency. The way student protesters were treated at Jantar Mantar, were they terrorists?”, asked Prashant Kumar Yadav, a research scholar who had come from Lucknow.Youngsters at Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Prayagraj on Saturday (August 8). Photo: INC OfficialSpeaking at the massive event on Saturday, LoP Gandhi blamed the Union government for the lack of jobs, expensive education, paper leaks, poor access to credit and the growing use of AI for holding the youth back.“You are the power and pride of India; when I say this, I talk about every Indian citizen.”He said he wanted to speak about “dard (pain), data and daulat (wealth)” and talk about the problems facing young Indians and the economic resources he believes should belong to them.“Today, education certificates have no meaning in India because they cannot give you a job,” he said, arguing that students could spend years and large amounts of money on education without finding meaningful employment. He further spoke about the addiction created by this void of jobs.Education becoming increasingly expensive, says Rahul GandhiGandhi added that the youth were now being trapped in a “chakravyuh”, with education becoming increasingly expensive while degrees and certificates fail to translate into jobs.“Out of every 1000 young people, only 12 land a permanent job. As for your data, it is taken away from you; it is handed over to major corporations – Jio, Adani, Facebook, and Google – and you are ensnared. You are told to watch as many reels as you like, send as many WhatsApp messages as you wish, and browse or create content on Instagram,” said Gandhi.The crowd at Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Prayagraj on Saturday (August 8). Photo: INC Official“This is the addiction of the 21st century and then you are told to work for Blinkit or Uber, or to do manual labour. You can indulge in this 21st-century addiction, but you cannot get a job; you cannot find employment in this country,” he alleged.Students welcome conversations around issues concerning the youth“My understanding is that under the present circumstances, even if conversations are happening around issues concerning the youth, at least that will yield a fruitful result. Unlike the ruling party whose dispensation revolves around mandir-masjid, if issues related to academics are being discussed, then such efforts are quite meaningful,” said Saddam Ansari, a student of Allahabad University told The Wire. Among issue-based student protesters who were also present at the ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme and hoped that their problems would be addressed through amplification on a larger stage, was a group comprising candidates who have been arguing against not being allowed access to unreserved category seats owing to change in rules.A group of students at the event in Prayagraj protesting against not being allowed access to unreserved category seats owing to change in rules. Photo: Akanksha Kumar/The Wire“On January 9, 2020, based on their internal meeting, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission cleared a rule that among 40% seats for the unreserved category, candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) won’t be allocated these seats. As a result of this, we are denied benefit of migration. And given the fact that this is happening at the prelims stage, how will we ever make it to the mains stage of the exam? This is zero accountability in the name of transparency,” Birendra Pal, one of the students, told The Wire. Holding a banner with a tabular chart reflecting difference in cut-offs for those belonging to the reserved category who were denied benefit of migration quota in different exams like PCS, Block Education Officer (BEO), and Review Officer/Assistant Review Officer (RO/ARO) and a board which said “Merit is merit! Stop trapping reserved candidates,” this group, too, was present on Saturday at the KP ground, in the hope that their grievances would be heard.