Why are Jharkhand’s youths on the streets after CJP’s exam protests?
Jharkhand’s recruitment exam protest has entered its 23rd day, with students demanding Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s resignation. They have planned a gathering around the Chief Minister’s residence for August 20th and have announced they will burn effigies of the minister and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
In a Nutshell:
- The protests began on July 25 over alleged irregularities in the JPSC civil service and JSSC graduate-level recruitment exams, which hundreds of thousands of applicants compete for in a state long stricken by poverty.
- The government agreed to cancel the 14th JPSC exam and two JPSC backlog exams, but rejected students’ demand to cancel the JSSC CGL and to order a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the exam irregularities.
- On August 10, protests escalated when police used water cannon, tear gas and batons on peaceful protesters who marched towards the Assembly.
- At least six protesters are on hunger strike, including Devendra Nath Mahto, who was taken to the hospital after 15 days of fasting and who later alleged that he was prevented by police from joining the Independence Day march.
- Students are now demanding Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s resignation and have called on Rahul Gandhi to withdraw Congress support from the JMM-led government.
Context
Despite celebrating its 25th anniversary last November, Jharkhand has made little significant progress as a state; high unemployment is rampant, making it a major supplier of domestic help to other states and cities like Delhi. This makes public sector jobs particularly coveted, with hundreds of thousands of applicants competing for only a few thousand vacancies. Therefore, recruitment exam irregularities only exacerbate existing tensions in the state's increasingly unstable and unreliable job market.
Why it matters
A recent recruitment exercise drew nearly 640,000 applications for only 2,025 posts, while another attracted more than 322,000 candidates for 510 vacancies. That means allegations of leaks, cheating, or manipulation can affect hundreds of thousands of people who may have spent years preparing, while cancellations can push them into another cycle of preparation and uncertainty. The government's own response acknowledges the depth of the problem. Chief Minister Hemant Soren, whose resignation protesters have been demanding, admitted that recruitment controversies had shaken the trust of an entire generation and proposed secured examinations, public answer keys and OMR sheets, annual exam calendars and stronger accountability. A key opposition figure against the Modi government in the CJP protests, Rahul Gandhi, has similarly condemned the police response and supported students here, but protesters now want him to withdraw Congress's support from the coalition if the government does not act.
What we think
Jharkhand’s protests over recruitment exam irregularities come only one month after intense CJP protests forced the BJP to concede to student demands and bring about the resignation of former Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Against this background, a pattern emerges: discontent and frustration among the youth regarding how their education and recruitment systems operate. Understandably, when twenty-something-year-olds sit for prestigious exams that could secure stable jobs for the rest of their lives, the last thing they expect is that the system will fail them. When these very exams are subject to paper leaks, cheating allegations, and other irregularities that lead to cancellations, students and job seekers respond in the only way they can: by making their protests heard on the streets. Not to put too fine a point to it, both movements - CJP starting in Delhi and now Jharkhand’s protests- bring forward the same concerns from the youth. They are asking authorities to listen to them and fix the gaps in the educational and job recruitment system that cost them years of their lives. Ultimately, this is a structural issue, and no number of minister resignations and replacements can lead to lasting change. The question now is this: is the government actually listening if young people have to keep protesting for these changes time and again?