Unemployment: Aspirants write to UP CM warning of suicide

Lucknow: Thousands of aspirants wrote letters to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urging him to fill up the 1,37,500 vacancies for the post of assistant teacher in schools statewide. The aspirants said that they would only have the option to end their lives by suicide if they did not get jobs. They have also written letters to the President and Governor.

These candidates have been protesting at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) office in Lucknow since July '21. They have alleged partiality in recruitment by the state government and claim that the government supports upper caste candidates while ignoring candidates from marginalized communities.

The police lathi-charged and dispersed the agitating candidates on October 21. 61 were arrested and jailed. Both the Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted in favour of the protesting youth.

The BJP had promised jobs and better socio-economic development when they came to power in the state in 2017.