Protests in Karnataka over 2.8 lakh government job vacancies: What triggered them, and why was recruitment delayed?

On Tuesday (February 24), Karnataka witnessed protests by the Akhila Karnataka State Students’ Association (AKSSA) in Dharwad against the Congress-led state government over vacancies in various government departments and the delay in filling them. Hundreds of students and job aspirants, primarily from the North Karnataka region, participated in the demonstration. What triggered these protests, and how have government vacancies grown over the past decade? We explain. ## What triggered the protests? The protest by AKSSA — the second in six months — highlighted the delays in recruitment notifications and fears of crossing the age limit for eligibility. The protestors said that recruitment to government posts has remained frozen since November 2024, which has hurt their prospects. They were also wary that the delay would render them ineligible to apply for government jobs when the government invites applications. How have government job vacancies grown over the past decade? Questions raised in both houses of the Karnataka legislature since 2015 show that vacancies have almost doubled in a decade. Back in 2015, an estimated 1.5-1.7 lakh posts were vacant in various departments. Over the past decade, vacancies have almost doubled: during the joint session of the state legislature in January, the latest figure pegged vacancies at 2.84 lakh. If vacancies in various boards and corporations (1.01 lakh) and universities (14,677) are considered, the number swells to 4 lakh. Which departments have the most vacancies? According to government data, the School Education and Literacy Department had 79,694 posts vacant, contributing to around 27 per cent of the total vacancies. Next are the Health and Medical Education and Home Departments with 37,572 and 28,188 vacancies respectively. Other departments with more than 10,000 vacant posts are Higher Education (13,599), Animal Husbandry (11,020), Revenue (10,867), and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (10,504). Women and Child Development (9,646), Backward Classes Welfare (8,525), Forest (7,668), and Law (7,659) are among those with sizable vacancies. ## Why did vacancies grow? The government’s decision to freeze recruitment on two separate occasions appears to have piled up the vacancies. Soon after the first COVID-19 wave in 2020, all direct recruitments — including backlog posts — were put on hold for the fiscal year 2020-21. Since the state’s finances were in poor shape post-pandemic, the previous BJP government carried out a limited number of recruitments before its tenure ended in 2023. Under Congress rule, the issue of internal reservation has caused a delay. In November 2024, when the state government formed a one-man Commission under Justice HN Nagamohan Das to recommend internal reservation for Scheduled Caste communities, it decided to freeze recruitment until the commission produced a reservation formula. Although the Commission submitted its report in August 2025, hopes of the freeze being lifted were short-lived, as the Karnataka High Court stayed the internal reservation formula in October. Incidentally, filling “2.5 lakh vacant posts” was among the assurances made in the Congress manifesto ahead of the Assembly election. How did the opposition react? During the protest, BJP leaders such as Leader of Opposition R Ashok, MLA Arvind Bellad, and others expressed solidarity with the protestors. Alleging that the Congress government had not carried out any recruitment because it was bankrupt, they demanded that the government fill the vacancies at the earliest. Soon after the Dharwad protest, Union Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy posted on X that the highest number of vacancies persist in the education, health, and police departments. “Alarmingly, 18 key police stations in Bengaluru city are functioning without Inspectors, a telling symptom of a government preoccupied with transfers. This drift in governance is already having adverse consequences on the ground. The government must act with urgency, step down from the third floor of Vidhana Soudha and listen to the voice of the youth,” he said. What was the Karnataka government’s response? Chief Minister Siddaramaiah blamed the previous BJP government for the backlog, citing “prolonged inaction”. He has promised that a notification for 56,000 new jobs would be issued shortly and assured faster, more transparent recruitment processes. Last month, the state Cabinet considered the delays in recruitments caused by various factors and decided to provide a five-year age relaxation for all government job aspirants across all categories until the end of December 2027.