For 26-year-old Sarita Munda, the struggle to get a government job has stretched across years, exam cycles and disappointments.
She came to Ranchi from a village near Latehar with a familiar plan among young Adivasi youth in many parts of Jharkhand: study, prepare for the State recruitment examinations, find a government job and build a life that guarantees a place in the system that governs them, visibility and ways of income other than agricultural work or daily wage labour.
But preparation costs money. Ms. Sarita has been doing domestic work in Ranchi to support herself while studying. Her brother and sister have also spent years preparing for the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) and Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) examinations.
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She appeared for an examination in 2024, only to see it cancelled. The following year brought another round of uncertainty and allegations of irregularities. Now, in 2026, she finds herself once again in the middle of a student movement demanding that the recruitment process be made credible.
For her, the dispute is not simply about an examination. It is about whether the years spent preparing for it will lead anywhere. That is the question that has brought students to the streets of Ranchi, where a protest over recruitment examinations has entered its 16th day.
Secure job, recognition
For many, JPSC and JSSC represent perhaps the clearest route to secure employment in a State where the private sector offers limited opportunities, particularly for young people from rural and Adivasi communities.
The choice, as several aspirants describe it, is stark: continue tilling the land that often provides enough to sustain a family but little surplus or spend years studying for a competitive examination that can potentially change the family’s economic circumstances.
“Either it is agricultural work, not for profit, but to sustain ourselves on our own land or we study somehow and try to get these government jobs,” is how one aspirant described the calculation.
‘Core Adivasi issue’
Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000 after a long political movement built around questions of identity, land, resources and self-determination. More than two decades later, many young Adivasis say the promise of social and economic inclusion remains unfulfilled.
According to the 2011 Census, Scheduled Tribes account for roughly 26% of Jharkhand’s population. The Census also maintains separate data on the educational levels of Scheduled Tribe communities in the State, reflecting the importance of education in understanding the State’s social and economic inequalities.
For Adivasi youth, government job means being the first person in a family to enter the formal system that makes decisions about the community that remains on the margins.
That is why Akriti Lakra believes the current agitation cannot be separated from the Adivasi question. Ms. Lakra, who is from a village near Namkum, has been attending the protest and joined the Adivasi Bachao Yuva Manch’s programme around International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Sunday.
Standing before protesters, she questioned the absence of an Adivasi voice from much of the visible leadership of the agitation.
“How can we just celebrate when the youth of this State has been protesting,” she asked, arguing that education has always been at the heart of the Adivasi struggle after jal, jungle, zameen (water, forests, land.)
She was later confronted by a protester who told her, “This is not platform for Adivasi issues, it won’t work here.”
But students from Adivasi communities, she said, have been part of the protest from its beginning, even while leaving behind agricultural work during monsoon. “This is the season of field work,” she said, making the point that many students who have come to Ranchi have had to choose between participating in the agitation and working at home.
In some villages, she said, government recruitment examinations have become almost a family aspiration. “Someone from every family is preparing for JPSC or JSSC,” she said.
That dependence is visible in the stories of aspirants who have spent years preparing. There is the cost of books, coaching, rent, food, travel and examination fees. There is also the opportunity cost: years that could otherwise have been spent working, earning or pursuing another career.
Every delay, therefore, carries a different meaning for a student who has already spent several years preparing. “By the time another opportunity arrives, private-sector employment may no longer be an easy alternative, and returning to the village may mean returning to agricultural work,” said Nishi Kumar, 39, who has lost all her to unsuccessful conduct of exams.
Published – August 10, 2026 12:18 am IST
