Of the 8,000 people who applied for the six posts of laboratory assistants to handle corpses at the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department of the state-run Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, 100 are engineers, 500 postgraduates, and 2,200 graduates, an official from the establishment said on Saturday. The post is usually referred to as 'dom' in the morgue.
Of the total applications, 784, including 84 women, have been called for a written test on August 1, they added.
The notification for the post was issued last December, and it called for applicants who passed at least 8th grade and were in the 18-40 age group. The remuneration for the post is Rs 15,000 per m0onth.
"Several applicants are overqualified for the job. It is quite a shock that engineers, postgraduates and graduates have applied for this post. This has happened for the first time. We generally get applications from people whose family members have been working as "dom"," the official added.