Some 8000 youths in J&K were employed by the government on a merit basis, out of the 20000 applied from all over India, under the National Service Volunteer Scheme to help calm the civil protests of 2010 in Kashmir.
Under this scheme they were eligible to serve up to two years but later on, the government utilized them for filling in other departmental jobs while on the same honorarium pay of Rs. 2,500 per month.
Now they demand full-time employment with decent pay.
Waseem Siddiqui, state vice-president of NYC, said that “we were engaged by the government and did all their jobs as a permanent employee. We were doing their job just like a permanent employee. But after two years, the government told us that you are going to be disengaged.”
These youths have been contacting several MLCs, MLAs and Ministers such as Ajay Makan, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz, but haven’t received much help. Stating that the government’s policy of “use and throw” has endangered the future of these youth, they have given 2 years of their lives and have not received any permanent solution.
“They [the government] told us that ‘you can continue yourself in the departments and we will try to gradually get you engaged again and try to extend your services,’ but till now they haven’t extended it. We are now here on hunger-strike to demand extension,” Siddiqui said.
Around two dozen members of the association have been on hunger strike for the past two days.