The Congress-led SPF Government of O Ibobi is heading for full five years term. One of the achievement in this five year term will be that it has initiated appointment process in some of the Departments.

This has made the employees of Employment Exchange offices busy these days in the process of notification of employment and at the same time they get richer by a few hundred rupees daily in the registration of eligible candidates.

I use the phrase 'get richer' because some of the unemployed youths have the kindness to grease the palms of the employees to ensure their names among the list.

Appointment are being made to some extent in Home department, recruiting some hundred of youths in Police Department and IRB forces.

Through the MPSC some doctors are also appointed and comparative examinations for MCS/MPS/MFS/SDC are still in progress. Sporadic DPCs are also being held in some other departments from time to time to appoint Class III and IV employees.

The major bulk of vacant posts at present is in the Education Department. Though the department is being haunted by the ghost of MGEL, the need for appointing more teachers is felt in the primary and graduate post of teachers.

Written test for recruitment of more than 600 graduate teachers are already in process and now 1400 or so posts of Primary teachers are to be appointed. For this notifications have been made.

The figure of job seekers in Manipur have crossed over the 4 lakh marks if we are to believe the records of the Employment Exchange office of the nine districts of Manipur.

Even though the recruitment is done without any mistake in choosing the best and deserved candidates it only succeeds in making the life and career of a few thousand youth and majority of the jobseekers will fall in the way side for whom there is nothing but day dreaming.

One of the most lucrative careers that attracts the cream of our youth today is that of getting a job in Government office. That should also be a permanent job not a part time, adhoc or casual one.

No matter how old you are, what your occupation is, what your educational qualification are or where you live, chances are that you are worried about getting a job - your own, your wife's - your children's'.

This is the insecurity felt in the psyche of thousands of youth who are bare in their hands by having merit certificates in their bags.

Job insecurity, fear of losing one's job has always been there among the part time, adhoc or ca-sual employees of the State. The existing jobs which they manage to get requires extension, payment of wages regularly and at the most confirmation in due course of time.

But perpetual delays on the part of the Govt only multiply the growing fears that the existing jobs are under threat and at the same time new jobs are difficult to come by.

This job insecurity - the fear of losing one's job has intensified across all sections of youths combined with employment insecurity - the fear of not finding a job and it has fuelled economic insecurity among all-educated unemployed classes.

Then how bad is the job market? Is Manipur heading towards jobless growth? Is there a way out of the growing insecurity? Finding answers to these questions are not easy even at the best of times.

The point need to be minutely discussed here in the context of present employment scenario in the State is not the difficulty in finding a job but job seekers' preference to Government jobs than private firms. The real issue is not the shrinkage of job opportunities but the poor perception of the new jobs.

For instances of job loss there is also counter examples of job creation. For example, when the Government schools fail in its performance, when the Government bans recruitment of teachers, many private schools grow up giving employment to the educated youths.

It is just that jobs under private firms do not have the kind of security that Government jobs offered. So they are not considered as good as the Government job. This perception of only a permanent Government job being a good job should be changed.

The days of getting life time permanent employment seemed to have gone as any Government cannot guarantee employment for very educated youths. The common man will have to understand this reality.

In the private sector, whether it is in the private school or private firms performance not permanence have become the norm of employment. As a result more and more private sector jobs are becoming contractual. Such job are inhe-rently unstable but at the same time doors are wide open for the talented and laborious competitors.

We must realize that our present society is radically different from what it was a decade or two ago. Today's fast pace of life and get-rich-quick techni-ques often lure away the youth from the path of du-ty and responsibility.

Their education curricula give them only day dreaming and instead of keeping them busy and profitably occupied all the time, they use their power and energies to such anti-social pursuits such as strikes and demonstrations. So the biggest challenge for the youths of our society is the economic security. Without economic securi-ty a man has no security at all.

So, the need of the present situation is that our youths stop day drea-ming and stop searching pots of gold at the foot of the rainbow by running after Govt jobs. Instead they should use their power and talents in many fields of employment beyond the boundary of our State.