Udaipur:
There are 15 posts to fill, 3,000 applications. That is common in populous India. Only, the posts here are those of peons at a Rajasthan university and many young men armed with even PhDs and MBA degrees have applied.
The applications flooding the Mohan Lal Sukhadia University in Udaipur are a grim reminder of unemployment in the country. But among those vying for these jobs are also people that are already employed in vocations more in keeping with their qualifications. Like Manmohan Singh Rathore, who has an MPhil degree in computer science, a journalism degree and is a teacher in a private school. But Mr Rathore aspires to join Mohan Lal Sukhadia university as a peon.
"I have all these big degrees, but there is no assured employment. If I get selected, I'll get to do a government job," Mr Rathore says.
The starting salary for a peon at the university is about Rs 4,700 a month. This might go up to Rs 7,000. But for Mr Rathore and others with management or doctoral degrees, the security of a government job, with an assured pension, government accommodation and other facilities are the big draw.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof IV Trivedi, says the university has never before "received applications from candidates who've done PhD, MPhil, MBA and Msc for the post of peon. We are really surprised to get applications from such highly-qualified people."