Police in Udaipur arrested 48 people in connection with exam cheating
On a chilly December morning, police in the western state of Rajasthan saw a bus bound for Udaipur City and followed it.
The night before, they’d received a tip — the questionnaire for an exam to hire teachers in the state’s public schools was supposed to have been leaked that morning, just hours before millions of students were due to take the test. Around 1,193 test centers were set up for the much-anticipated recruitment campaign on December 24th.
In India, where government jobs are in high demand, instances of aspiring candidates resorting to unfair means are not uncommon. One way many job seekers try to secure a spot is by cheating on exams by buying questionnaires or paying someone else to write the test on their behalf.
The bus in Udaipur was on its way to an investigation center and police suspected those who leaked the paper were on it.
At first they waited some distance away while the bus circled a building for a few minutes. Then they stopped doing it.
“Inside we found four state school teachers solving questionnaires for at least 20 candidates,” an official who wished to remain anonymous told the BBC.
The applicants allegedly paid the teachers who supervised the center money – police did not say exactly how much – to get the papers for them. Around 20 “dummy” candidates, who were paid by applicants to take the test on their behalf, were also taken off the bus. Police claimed the defendants were carrying fake IDs.
A total of 48 people were arrested in connection with the scam this morning, prompting authorities to drop the investigative process.
Two of the main suspects have yet to be caught – authorities have announced a $1,500 (£1,245) bounty on each of them, Udaipur Police Chief Vikas Sharma told the BBC.
The bus with teachers and candidates cheated on the state exam
The incident was the latest in a series of scams in which questionnaires for important state exams were leaked or solved for money. At least 12 recruitment drives in the state have been canceled since 2018 after the test was leaked — just days, sometimes hours, before the test.
Aspiring students say they are frustrated by the delays and are beginning to lose confidence in the hiring process.
“I don’t think I’ll come back for the test,” said Santosh Kumawat, the 30-year-old mother who has traveled twice from neighboring Maharashtra to appear in Rajasthan for the test.
“The first time they canceled the exam. The second time, our answer sheets were suddenly snatched away midway because the questionnaire was leaked,” she said.
The problem isn’t just limited to Rajasthan — exam leaks are known to be rampant across India, where millions are out of work and looking for secure jobs.
Political scientist Pankaj Kumar, who headed the Uttar Pradesh state Public Service Commission, which hires civil servants, says “it’s the craze for a government job that makes people desperate”.
Government jobs in India are generally lifelong and Mr Kumar says millions often wait years to get one and “spending money to cheat eventually becomes the motto of some aspirants”.
Frustrated candidates like Santosh Kumawat say they’re tired of showing up for exams
In Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, at least nine recruitment attempts for teachers and assistants have been aborted since 2014 due to paper leaks. In the eastern state of West Bengal, authorities were forced to launch an investigation last year after questionnaires on teacher recruitment hours before the exam were shared widely on social media.
The story is no different in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, which was rocked by a massive recruitment scam in 2009 when candidates taking a medical exam hired students from neighboring states to write their papers. Questionnaires were also leaked and sold to candidates at astronomical prices before authorities cracked down and arrested thousands.
The core states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are also notorious.
In Bihar, students are sometimes not allowed to wear shoes and socks in examination centers to discourage them from cheating. In the past, authorities have imposed fines, jail terms, and even arrested parents for allegedly helping their children cheat.
In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, exams are often conducted under video surveillance.
Police say errors usually occur when questionnaires are transported to testing centers. In other cases, as in Udaipur, students go to great lengths to fake their identities, making it almost impossible for authorities to catch them.
Currently there are no clear laws to solve the problem as most cases are registered as criminal offenses such as fraud and cheating. Some states, such as Uttarakhand, have passed legislation punishing offenders with life imprisonment, but critics say it has done little to improve the situation.
Ashok Rathore, a senior official investigating paper leaks in Rajasthan, says authorities need to find new police ways to address the problem.
“We have asked the government to involve the police and local government even before the examination begins, so that the questionnaires are out of the reach of scammers – just like ballot boxes are kept safe until the votes are counted,” he said.
But experts say the problem is also highlighting the unemployment crisis in India, where millions are out of work.
According to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), an independent think tank, India’s unemployment rate rose to almost 8% in December 2022. In 2021 it was less than 7%.
In the past, protests against exam leaks have erupted in India
Nearly 20 million people in India are employed by federal and state governments, and officials estimate that at least a million other positions are currently unfilled.
“Even 30 years after liberalization, India does not have enough jobs for its nearly 1.4 billion people,” says writer and political commentator Gurcharan Das.
He adds that government jobs are more lucrative in a country where three-quarters of the workforce is self-employed and receives little to no Social Security benefits.
“Unlike government jobs, private jobs don’t come with a lifetime guarantee of security and pensions,” Mr Das said.
The job seekers say their future looks bleak due to paper leaks and repeated exam cancellations – they fear they will soon exceed the age limit for those jobs.
“I’ve been taking coaching courses for years to qualify for a government job, but most of my exams have been cancelled,” Devender Sharma said.
The 30-year-old from the town of Bikaner in Rajasthan has been applying for a low-skill government job in the state for a decade.
“My parents blame me for failing, even though it’s the system that let us down,” he said.
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