Students and youth across Uttar Pradesh are weighed down with the problem of unemployment and are struggling on various issues such as recruitment of new teachers in primary schools, advertising of 27000 posts by the Middle School Selection Board, appointment of selected candidates, modus operandi and appointment in UPSSSC, Higher Education Services Commission, UPPSC, corruption and reservation scam in the 69000 teachers appointments, Police recruitment, UPSI, or the most recent issue of the paper leak in the TET eligibility exam. The brunt of the miserable state of all these Commission-Board exams has to be borne by unemployed students and youth coming from poor farmer-worker backgrounds. None but the government is directly responsible for this. Therefore it is essential that instead of fighting separately, we must all raise our voice in unison across the state against unemployment and for the right to employment with dignity. It is in this direction that we are carrying forward the 'UP Maange Rozgaar' (UP Demands Employment) campaign. On 2 December 2021 students and youth from all over Uttar Pradesh reached Lucknow for the movement. Intellectuals, farmers, workers, women and university students also joined in full support of the Right to Employment march.
The large number of student-youth organizations and movements for employment that are part of the UP Demands Employment campaign raised all the prominent demands of students and youth, including: starting the recruitment process for filling 25 lakh government posts without delay: answer why the claim to provide 70 lakh government jobs in 5 years remains unfulfilled; white paper on employment; revoke the decision to sell national assets; immediate loan waivers for all self-employed persons; Rs 10000 unemployment allowance for all unemployed youth; probe into the reservation scam in the 69000 teachers recruitment; cancel appointments of non-reserved persons to reserved posts; stop tampering with social justice in recruitments; guarantee social justice in employment; start the factories and industries in the District and give employment to youth; regularize all contract workers; guarantee equal pay for equal work; probe paper leaks in competitive exams; transparency in the recruitment process, and institutional changes to guarantee regularity; free application forms; admit card should serve as bus/rail pass; repeal New Education Policy; end privatization; make employment a fundamental right.
Campaign convener Sunil Maurya condemned the police repression on and arrest of students and youth who had come to Lucknow for the march and demanded the release of all the arrested persons. He said that the Yogi government must fulfill without delay all the demands of youth demanding their right to employment, or be prepared to face even more intense protests.
