New Delhi: Amid the debate over alleged jobless growth in India, a report by TOI suggests that there are nearly 24 lakh posts that are lying vacant with the central and state governments collectively. There are a number of vacant positions across different departments in various government sectors that includes posts of teachers in schools, different positions in police forces, defence, and Indian Railways among others. A data compiled from answers to various questions in Parliament shows:

Vacant posts of teachers


It has been reported that over 10 lakh positions for teachers in government schools are vacant. This includes 9 lakh positions in elementary and 1.1 lakh posts in secondary schools.

On the other hand, a bulk of vacancies are not filled in the centrally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. It is a programme initiated by the government which provides assistance to states and Union territories to maintain the desired pupil-teacher ratio under the right to education norms.

Vacant posts in Police force


Meanwhile, the report quoted figures from the Bureau of Police Research & Development stating that there are 4.4 lakh vacancies in civil and district armed police. For the fact, the police forces have the second-largest share of the 2 million-plus vacancies!

In addition to this, around 90,000-odd positions are vacant in state armed police, as per the report. This figure took the total vacancy in police forces to 5.4 lakh across the country.

Vacant posts in Indian Railways and health sector


There are 2.5 lakh vacant posts among non-gazetted staff in Indian Railways, while around 1.5 lakh positions remain to be filled in health centres.

Although the government had issued two notifications in the month of February this year to fill more than 89,000 of these vacancies.

Vacant posts in Defence and Paramilitary forces


Incidentally, there are over 1.2 lakh vacant positions in the defence services and paramilitary forces. Over 61,000 of these are in paramilitary forces while the aggregate figure for the three defence forces is over 62,000, TOI mentioned in the data quoting answers to Rajya Sabha questions on March 14 and 19 and a Lok Sabha question on April 4.