Engineers, MBAs among 3,500 graduates seeking sweeper jobs in Tamil Nadu

Three thousand five hundred graduates including MBAs (Master of Business Administration) and engineers have applied for 549 posts of sweepers in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore city.

Thousands, including 500 candidates with professional degrees, thronged the city corporation’s office for interview and certificate verification on Wednesday, forcing the authorities to allocate two more days for short listing for a position that only requires fluency in Tamil and pays between ₹15,700 to Rs.50,000.

“While we scrutinized the applications, we found 3,500 applicants had completed their graduation,” a top official told HT.

22-year old S Vignesh, who completed mechanical engineering from a private college in 2018, said he couldn’t find any other job and was “not ashamed” to apply for the sweepers post as he had a family to feed, “My father is also unemployed,” he said.

28-year old S Rahul, a graduate in masters of commerce, too, failed to find another job and applied for the sweepers positions for the “job security” and “benefits” a government job offers.

Several contractual sweepers feel the graduates are giving them unfair competition.

“After passing class 12, I joined as a sweeper in Coimbatore corporation in 2006. It is disappointing that many degree holders are coming here as competitors,” said one 36-year-old female sweeper on contract with the civic body.

Tamil Nadu has more than 500 engineering colleges churning out technical graduates every year in numbers. In February this year, 4600 engineering and MBA graduates had applied for Tamil Nadu assembly’s 14 sweeper positions.

HT’s attempts to reach the Coimbatore City Corporation Commissioner for comments were not successful.