Railways Pulls Up Vendor For Jobs Ad Seeking Candidates On Caste Lines

A railway vendor, that alluded to caste preferences in its recruitment advertisement, has been ticked off by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) after severe backlash on the social media.

Brandavan Food Products sought 100 candidates for three posts -- train catering manager, base kitchen manager and store manager.

It said candidates should belong to "Agrawal Vaish Community" and have "good family background", besides educational qualification of ''10+2'' in its recruitment advertisement.

IRCTC on Thursday said that the company has removed the human resource personnel who posted the advertisement.

"Serious view is taken by the IRCTC and the contractor has been asked to refrain from giving notice on caste lines and recruit eligible candidates."

"The contractor has confirmed that the HR manager responsible for the advertisement has been removed from his post," a senior railway official said.

The vendor also wrote to the IRCTC apologising for the advertisement and said that it was a "clerical mistake".

"Two different advertisements were supposed to be placed -- one for recruitment of staff in trains and restaurant and another for our social welfare program. Due to clerical mistake this advertisement has been placed publicly...our objective was not to hurt anyone and to offer jobs to any specific community," it said.

People on social media expressed outrage over the ad, saying that that caste cannot be a yardstick by which a candidate should be assessed for a job.

"Shameful and disgusting! Even the private operators will give job on the basis of caste?? Haven't we divided our country enough?" said Shahab Jafri, a Twitter user.

Another user blamed the political classes and said that casteism was being promoted in every sphere for votes. "There shouldn't be any casteism, but politicians promote it to divide castes and get votes," she said.