A Political Economy of Youth, Agrarian Society and the Retreat of the Welfare State in Haryana
-Ramphal Kataria
Abstract
The recent announcement by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini that yoga would be incorporated into the curriculum from Classes III to IX and made a compulsory component of recruitment examinations conducted by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission and the Haryana Public Service Commission raises a larger question. The issue is not whether yoga is desirable. The question is whether symbolism is being substituted for employment. Haryana has nearly 1.8 lakh vacant regular posts while depending upon more than one lakh contractual workers. Simultaneously, agriculture—the traditional source of livelihood—has become incapable of supporting growing populations and fragmented holdings. This article examines the historical evolution of employment in Haryana, the agrarian and caste structures that shape access to opportunities, and the gradual retreat of the state from regular employment to contractualisation. It argues that employment generation is not merely an economic necessity but a constitutional obligation flowing from the Directive Principles of State Policy.
"The issue is not whether young people can learn yoga. The issue is whether the state intends to conduct examinations to fill nearly two lakh vacant posts."
Introduction: The Question That Refuses to Go Away
On International Yoga Day 2026, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced that yoga would become part of the curriculum for Classes III to IX and questions related to yoga would be made mandatory in examinations conducted by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC). Sports departments in higher educational institutions would be renamed as Departments of Sports and Yoga. A state-level institute of naturopathy and yoga would be established at Morni.
There is little reason to object to yoga itself. Yoga, like wrestling, kabaddi, athletics or hockey, can contribute to physical and mental well-being. Haryana has historically embraced physical culture without any governmental compulsion. Villages across the state have produced generations of wrestlers, soldiers and athletes long before yoga entered the language of policy.
Yet the political significance of these announcements lies elsewhere.
At a time when regular vacancies in government departments exceed 1.8 lakh and more than one lakh contractual employees are performing functions that were traditionally discharged by regular personnel, the insistence on testing candidates in yoga appears curiously detached from the lived realities of the youth.
The problem before Haryana's young population is not the absence of yoga. It is the absence of employment.
Why Government Jobs Matter
In metropolitan discourse, government employment is often portrayed as an outdated aspiration. Such perceptions reveal little understanding of the socio-economic realities of states like Haryana.
For millions of families, a government job represents not privilege but survival.
Regular employment provides assured monthly income, social security, pensionary benefits, access to institutional credit, dignity, stability and the possibility of intergenerational mobility, making it a crucial source of economic security and social advancement.
Unlike industrialised societies where private employment dominates, rural Haryana continues to derive its social and economic security from three pillars:
1. agriculture;
2. military service;
3. government employment.
As agriculture becomes fragmented and private employment increasingly precarious, the dependence upon public employment intensifies.
Consequently, every vacancy left unfilled is not merely an administrative issue; it represents deferred hopes for thousands of educated youth.
Agrarian Haryana: Prosperity and Illusion
Haryana enjoys the reputation of being one of India's most prosperous agricultural states. More than eighty percent of its geographical area is under cultivation and irrigation coverage exceeds eighty-four percent.
The average operational holding is approximately 2.25 hectares, considerably above the national average.
Yet averages conceal inequalities.
Nearly half of all operational holdings are marginal. Population growth and repeated partitioning of land among heirs have transformed what once sustained a family into holdings incapable of supporting even basic needs.
The image of the prosperous farmer often masks a harsher reality.
Most households today cannot survive solely on agriculture.
"Agriculture in Haryana no longer guarantees prosperity; it merely postpones insecurity."
Caste and the Unequal Distribution of Land
Land ownership in Haryana remains deeply unequal.
Dominant agrarian castes—particularly Jats, alongside sections of Ahirs and Gujjars—control the overwhelming majority of cultivable land. Their historical position as peasant proprietors enabled them to benefit from Green Revolution technologies and accumulate economic and political influence.
Scheduled Castes, constituting nearly one-fifth of the population, own only a negligible share of agricultural land. The overwhelming majority remain landless labourers or marginal cultivators.
Traditional occupations among OBC communities have also suffered under industrialisation and technological change.
Potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers and numerous artisan communities have witnessed the erosion of occupations that once provided economic security.
For these communities, education and employment constitute the only available routes to mobility.
Government employment therefore acquires a significance far greater than income. It becomes a mechanism of social justice.
Approximate Pattern of Land Ownership in Haryana
Social Group | Population Share | Share in Agricultural Land |
Dominant Castes | 25-30% | 85-86% |
OBC Communities | Around 30% | Roughly proportional |
Scheduled Castes | About 20% | Less than 3% |
The consequences are obvious.
Those possessing land have a fallback option. Those without land possess only labour and education.
When employment opportunities shrink, the burden falls disproportionately upon SC and OBC youth.
Military Service: Patriotism and Political Economy
Haryana contributes one of the highest proportions of personnel to India's armed forces.
This phenomenon is frequently romanticised as evidence of martial traditions and patriotic zeal.
Such explanations are incomplete.
Military service became attractive because it provided early employment, a regular income, pensionary benefits, social prestige and a pathway to upward mobility for generations of rural households.
For families with fragmented holdings and uncertain incomes, the armed forces represented economic security.
Serving the nation became possible because the profession guaranteed livelihood.
The heroism of soldiers deserves celebration, but the socio-economic conditions producing that choice deserve equal scrutiny.
Patriotism may inspire service, but livelihood sustains it.
Sports Without Patronage
Long before sports policies and institutional slogans, Haryana's villages had already produced world-class athletes.
Among them are:
Kapil Dev (cricket);
Neeraj Chopra (javelin);
Vijender Singh and Amit Panghal (boxing);
Yogeshwar Dutt and Bajrang Punia (wrestling);
Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat (women's wrestling);
Rani Rampal and Savita Punia (hockey);
Sardara Singh and Sandeep Singh (hockey)
Deepak Hooda (kabaddi);
Shafali Verma (cricket);
Manu Bhakar (shooting).
These achievements emerged from local cultures that valued physical excellence.
They were not products of governmental rhetoric.
The lesson is simple.
Young people do not require ideological instruction to excel.
They require opportunity.
Constitutional Obligations and Employment
The Constitution does not explicitly guarantee a right to employment. Yet the Directive Principles clearly envision a welfare state.
Article 38 directs the state to minimise inequalities.
Article 39 requires policies securing adequate means of livelihood.
Article 41 mandates the state to secure the right to work within its economic capacity.
Article 43 seeks living wages and decent standards of life.
Article 46 calls for protection of weaker sections.
Employment generation is therefore not charity.
It is an obligation flowing from constitutional morality.
"A welfare state is judged not by the symbolism it manufactures but by the livelihoods it secures."
The debate is not between yoga and employment.
Young people of Haryana can study yoga. They can wrestle, run, shoot, box and represent India on global platforms.
The real question is simpler and more uncomfortable.
When nearly two lakh regular posts remain vacant, when contractual employment becomes permanent precarity, and when agriculture no longer sustains growing populations, should the state's priority be symbolic additions to examinations or conducting examinations themselves?
The youth of Haryana do not seek favours.
They seek opportunities.
And no government can indefinitely substitute rhetoric for employment.
A government is judged not by the number of questions it asks in examinations, but by whether it conducts those examinations to fill vacant posts.
From Expansion to Retrenchment
Population Growth, State Employment and the Rise of Contractualisation in Haryana (1971–2026)
"The growth of population was accompanied by the growth of aspirations. But while aspirations multiplied, regular employment did not."
The history of Haryana after its formation in 1966 is often narrated as a story of agricultural prosperity, rapid industrialisation and rising incomes. Less discussed is another history—that of the state's changing relationship with employment.
The early decades witnessed expansion of the welfare state. Schools, hospitals, irrigation systems, police stations and district administrations required manpower. Permanent public employment expanded in tandem with population growth.
Gradually, however, this relationship weakened.
Successive governments increasingly preferred fiscal restraint over manpower expansion. Recruitment became sporadic, litigation-prone and politically contentious. Retirements exceeded fresh appointments. Vacancies accumulated.
Eventually, instead of expanding regular recruitment, the state increasingly relied on alternative arrangements such as ad hoc employees, work-charge establishments, daily wagers, guest teachers, outsourcing, contractual appointments and, more recently, the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) to meet its growing manpower requirements.
Thus emerged a hybrid state in which regular functions are increasingly discharged by temporary labour.
Population Growth and Employment Expansion
Since 1971, Haryana's population has increased more than threefold.
Table 1
Population Growth in Haryana
Census Year | Population (Crore) |
1971 | 0.99 |
1981 | 1.29 |
1991 | 1.65 |
2001 | 2.11 |
2011 | 2.53 |
2026 (Projected) | 3.14 |
The state that served approximately one crore people in 1971 now caters to over three crore residents.
Naturally, the demands for education, healthcare, policing, roads, urban infrastructure and social welfare have multiplied alongside the growth of the population and the increasing complexity of society.
But state employment has failed to keep pace.
Historical Evolution of Government Employment
Exact figures for sanctioned posts before the 1980s are difficult to reconstruct because cadre allocations following Punjab's reorganisation were gradual. Yet broad trends reveal a disturbing pattern.
Table 2
Growth of Regular Government Employment
Year | Population (Crore) | Approx. Sanctioned Posts | Filled Posts | Vacancy Rate |
1971 | 0.99 | 1.65 lakh | 1.60 lakh | 3% |
1981 | 1.29 | 2.00 lakh | 1.92 lakh | 4% |
1991 | 1.65 | 2.50 lakh | 2.35 lakh | 6% |
2001 | 2.11 | 3.10 lakh | 2.75 lakh | 11% |
2011 | 2.53 | 4.00 lakh | 3.05 lakh | 24% |
2026 | 3.14 | 4.58 lakh | 2.63 lakh | Nearly 40% |
The most striking feature is not the sanctioned strength.
It is the widening gap between sanctioned posts and actual employees.
"Vacancies do not merely represent empty chairs. They represent postponed lives."
Declining Per-Capita Government Employment
The expansion of population far exceeded the expansion of regular manpower.
Table 3
Government Employees Per Thousand Population
Year | Filled Employees | Population | Employees per 1000 Population |
1971 | 1.60 lakh | 0.99 crore | 16.0 |
1981 | 1.92 lakh | 1.29 crore | 14.8 |
1991 | 2.35 lakh | 1.65 crore | 14.2 |
2001 | 2.75 lakh | 2.11 crore | 13.0 |
2011 | 3.05 lakh | 2.53 crore | 12.0 |
2026 | 2.63 lakh | 3.14 crore | 8.37 |
Thus, despite economic growth, the real presence of the state in terms of manpower has declined.
In effect, fewer regular employees are serving a much larger population.
Phase I (1966–1990): Expansion of the Welfare State
The first two decades after statehood represented a period of balanced growth.
District administrations expanded.
Schools and colleges multiplied.
The Public Health Engineering Department, Irrigation Department, PWD and Agriculture Department recruited extensively.
The Haryana Staff Selection Commission functioned largely as a mechanism for absorbing growing manpower requirements.
Vacancies existed but remained manageable.
Public employment symbolised state-building.
Phase II (1990–2010): Liberalisation and Recruitment Stagnation
Economic liberalisation transformed state priorities.
Fiscal prudence increasingly replaced welfare expansion.
Meanwhile:
litigation over recruitment increased;
paper leaks became common;
political changes delayed appointments;
regularisation disputes occupied courts.
Recruitment cycles became uncertain.
The gap between retirements and fresh appointments widened steadily.
The burden was absorbed by temporary arrangements.
The Birth of Parallel Labour
Instead of expanding regular posts through sustained recruitment, successive governments increasingly relied on daily wagers, work-charge employees, ad hoc staff and contractual workers to perform functions that were traditionally discharged by permanent employees.
What were once emergency measures gradually became normal administrative practice.
The logic was simple.
Temporary workers cost less.
They possessed no pension liabilities.
They could be engaged without long-term fiscal commitments.
Thus began the informalisation of the state itself.
Education Sector: A Laboratory of Contractualisation
Perhaps no department illustrates this transformation better than education.
Table 4
Teaching Workforce in Haryana
Category | Approximate Strength |
Sanctioned Teaching Posts | 1.28 lakh |
Regular Working Teachers | About 1.02 lakh |
Vacancies | 20–25 thousand |
Guest Faculty/HKRN Staff | 12–15 thousand |
Guest teachers, initially conceived as temporary arrangements, became permanent stopgaps.
Many have spent decades in service.
They perform identical duties but receive lower salaries and possess fewer rights.
Equal work exists.
Equal wages do not.
"Temporary appointments became permanent realities, but temporary employees never became permanent citizens of the welfare state."
Healthcare Sector: Shortages and Outsourcing
The health sector tells a similar story.
Table 5
Health Sector Manpower Deficit
Indicator | Approximate Figure |
Vacancies in various cadres | More than 10,000 |
Contractual employees | Around 15,000 |
Medical officer shortages | Persistent |
Nursing shortages | Significant |
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these shortages.
Yet instead of large-scale regular recruitment, contractual arrangements deepened.
Police Department
Population growth, urbanisation and rising crime increased policing requirements.
Table 6
Haryana Police
Indicator | Figure |
Sanctioned strength | About 76,000 |
Vacancies | About 23,000 |
Working strength | About 53,000 |
Thus the burden on existing personnel has intensified.
Work-Charge and Casual Labour
Another category emerged through work-charge establishments.
Originally intended for project-based activities, work-charge employees frequently remained for decades without regular status.
Similar conditions characterised tube-well operators, drivers, clerks, maintenance staff and technical workers, many of whom occupied an ambiguous position—neither fully permanent nor genuinely temporary—and often retired without enjoying the service protections and benefits available to regular employees.
The Rise of Guest Teachers
Perhaps the most tragic story belongs to guest teachers.
Thousands entered service as temporary instructors.
Years became decades.
Generations of students passed through their classrooms.
Yet employment insecurity remained constant.
The state enjoyed continuity of service without accepting corresponding obligations.
Precarity became institutionalised.
Why Governments Prefer Contract Labour
Three reasons explain this shift.
Fiscal Prudence
Permanent employees entail long-term obligations such as pensions, annual increments, promotions and gratuity, whereas contract labour enables governments to reduce these liabilities and maintain greater fiscal flexibility.
Administrative Flexibility
Temporary workers can be deployed with fewer procedural constraints.
Political Convenience
Governments can announce recruitments without fundamentally expanding the permanent structure.
Emergence of a Two-Tier State
Today's Haryana possesses two parallel bureaucracies.
Table 7
Dual Workforce Structure
Category | Strength |
Regular Employees | 2.63 lakh |
Contractual Employees | About 1.25 lakh |
HKRNL Employees | About 1.05 lakh |
Vacant Regular Posts | 1.82 lakh |
The consequence is a deeply unequal workforce.
Two employees performing similar duties may receive vastly different salaries and possess different rights.
The distinction between regular and contractual workers has become a new form of labour hierarchy.
The Welfare State Retreats
The transformation is ideological.
The post-independence developmental state sought to expand employment.
The contemporary state increasingly seeks to minimise liabilities.
Employment generation has gradually ceased to be viewed as a social obligation and is treated instead as a fiscal burden.
This marks a profound departure from the constitutional imagination underlying Articles 38, 39 and 41.
Stark Reality
Over five decades, Haryana has witnessed a structural shift.
The early state recruited.
The contemporary state outsources.
Permanent posts remain vacant.
Temporary workers perform permanent functions.
Population has tripled.
Regular employment has stagnated.
The result is not merely unemployment.
It is the gradual erosion of the welfare state itself.
"Successive governments did not abolish public employment. They simply stopped filling it."
From Welfare State to Contract State
HKRNL, Security of Service and the Institutionalisation of Precarious Labour in Haryana
"The state no longer refuses employment. It offers employment without rights."
The emergence of the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) represents perhaps the most significant transformation in the character of the state since Haryana's creation in 1966.
For decades, temporary employment existed as an exception. Governments employed daily wagers, work-charge staff, ad hoc teachers and contractual workers to address emergencies or shortages. Such arrangements were expected to be temporary.
Beginning with the economic reforms of the 1990s and accelerating after 2014, temporary employment gradually became a structural feature of governance. In 2021, this process acquired institutional form through the creation of the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited under the Companies Act, 2013.
The significance of this development extends beyond administrative convenience.
It marks a fundamental transition:
from a welfare state that recruited citizens to a managerial state that deploys labour.
"The worker remains indispensable. The rights attached to the worker become dispensable."
The Original Idea of Public Employment
The developmental state envisaged after independence viewed employment not merely as expenditure but as an instrument of social transformation.
Government employment historically performed multiple functions by providing income security, facilitating social mobility, reducing inequalities, promoting regional development and contributing to the creation of a stable middle class.
Permanent public employment created generations of teachers, clerks, nurses, engineers and police personnel whose salaries sustained entire families.
Employment became the principal mechanism through which the state distributed economic security.
That vision is now undergoing a transformation.
The Rise of Contractual Governance
As vacancies multiplied and governments became increasingly reluctant to undertake regular recruitment, contractual arrangements expanded.
By 2026, Haryana presents a peculiar situation.
Table 8
Structure of Public Employment in Haryana
Category | Approximate Number |
Regular sanctioned posts | 4.58 lakh |
Regular employees | 2.63 lakh |
Vacancies | 1.82 lakh |
Contractual employees | 1.25 lakh |
Employees through HKRNL | 1.05 lakh |
Thus, nearly one-third of the effective workforce functions outside the regular framework.
The distinction between temporary and permanent has become blurred.
Temporary workers perform permanent duties.
Yet permanent rights remain absent.
HKRNL: Rationalisation or Corporatisation?
The Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam was introduced with several stated objectives:
transparency in contractual appointments;
elimination of private outsourcing agencies;
standardisation of wages;
reduction of favouritism;
creation of a centralised deployment mechanism.
These objectives were not entirely misplaced.
Private outsourcing had often become synonymous with corruption and arbitrariness.
Yet the larger question remained unanswered.
Should contractual labour itself become permanent policy?
The Nigam did not replace contractualisation.
It institutionalised it.
Security of Service Rules, 2025
The Haryana Contractual Employees (Security of Service) Rules, 2025 introduced an important innovation.
Workers completing five years of continuous service with 240 working days annually could be retained till the age of 58 years.
At first glance, this appears progressive.
However, closer scrutiny reveals a deeper contradiction.
Security without equality is incomplete.
Workers receive continuity.
They do not receive parity.
"Job security without equal wages may protect employment, but it does not eliminate inequality."
Wage Structure and Structural Inequality
Table 9
Regular Employee versus Contractual Employee
Parameter | Regular Employee | HKRNL Worker |
Recruitment | Through HPSC/HSSC | Through HKRNL |
Pay Commission benefits | Yes | No |
Annual increments | Yes | Limited |
Promotion avenues | Yes | Negligible |
Pension | NPS/benefits | Absent |
Gratuity | Yes | Limited |
Service rules | Full protection | Restricted |
Retirement benefits | Available | Minimal |
Salary levels | Higher | Significantly lower |
Two workers may discharge identical responsibilities.
Yet their remuneration and future prospects differ enormously.
Thus emerges a new hierarchy within the state itself.
Equal Work but Unequal Wages
Article 39(d) of the Constitution explicitly speaks of equal pay for equal work.
Though part of the Directive Principles, the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognised the principle.
In Randhir Singh v. Union of India (1982), the Court held that equal pay for equal work constitutes a constitutional goal.
Similarly, in State of Punjab v. Jagjit Singh (2016), the Court observed that temporary employees performing similar duties cannot be denied parity merely because of their status.
Despite these pronouncements, contractual workers continue to receive substantially lower wages.
The contradiction is obvious.
The state itself becomes the largest practitioner of unequal remuneration.
Fiscal Prudence versus Social Justice
Governments justify contractualisation in the name of financial constraints.
Their arguments are straightforward:
pensions create liabilities;
salary bills consume revenue;
regular appointments reduce flexibility;
contractual workers are cost effective.
These arguments possess economic logic.
But economics is never value-neutral.
Reducing labour costs essentially means transferring fiscal burdens from the state to workers.
Savings for the treasury become sacrifices for employees.
The question therefore is political rather than merely administrative.
Who bears the burden of fiscal prudence?
A New Class of Permanent Temporaries
Guest teachers, NHM workers, Anganwadi workers, data entry operators, clerks, laboratory technicians and HKRNL employees constitute what may be called a class of "permanent temporaries."
The characteristics of this emerging class of "permanent temporaries" include the absence of career progression, lower wages, chronic insecurity, delayed regularisation, dependence upon litigation and a heightened vulnerability to political and administrative changes.
Many spend thirty years in service without ever becoming regular employees.
Temporary status becomes hereditary.
"Contractualisation is not merely an administrative arrangement. It is the normalisation of insecurity."
Constitutional Vision versus Contractual Reality
The Constitution of India envisages a social welfare state.
Article 38
Reduction of inequalities.
Article 39(a)
Adequate means of livelihood.
Article 39(d)
Equal pay for equal work.
Article 41
Right to work.
Article 43
Living wage and decent standard of life.
Article 46
Protection of weaker sections.
The cumulative philosophy underlying these provisions is unmistakable.
The state must enhance social security.
Yet contractualisation transfers risks to workers.
Thus the burden of uncertainty shifts from the state to the citizen.
The Illusion of Employment Generation
Governments frequently cite the number of people engaged through contractual mechanisms as evidence of employment creation.
This obscures a critical distinction.
Employment and decent employment are not identical.
A society cannot measure progress solely by the number of people working.
It must also ask:
under what conditions?
with what wages?
with what rights?
with what future?
Without dignity and security, employment itself becomes precarious.
The Psychological Consequences
The economic effects of insecure employment are accompanied by social consequences.
Contractual workers often postpone marriage, housing investments, their children's education and even essential healthcare expenditure, as chronic insecurity and uncertain incomes make long-term planning difficult.
Anxiety becomes normal.
Consumption declines.
Social mobility stagnates.
The consequences extend beyond individuals and affect entire communities.
The Moral Contradiction
Modern governments celebrate entrepreneurship and self-reliance while simultaneously becoming the largest users of low-cost labour.
The irony is striking.
The state expects citizens to trust institutions.
Yet institutions themselves avoid trusting workers enough to offer regular employment.
The rhetoric of empowerment coexists with the reality of precarity.
International Experience
Advanced welfare states recognise that labour insecurity ultimately weakens economic growth.
Stable employment encourages consumption, enhances productivity, strengthens social cohesion and promotes long-term investment in human capital, thereby contributing to sustainable economic growth and social stability.
Precarious labour may reduce short-term costs, but it often generates long-term social instability.
The lesson is clear.
Economic efficiency and social justice are not mutually exclusive.
Is Contractualisation Reversible?
The issue is not whether every contractual employee can immediately become regular.
The issue is whether permanent functions should continue to be performed by temporary labour indefinitely.
A rational framework may require:
1. Filling all regular vacancies.
2. Restricting contractual appointments to exceptional situations.
3. Creating parity mechanisms.
4. Ensuring equal pay for equal work.
5. Establishing promotional avenues.
6. Expanding labour protections.
Without these measures, contractualisation risks becoming a permanent substitute for welfare.
The mirage of employment
The Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam did not create precarity.
It institutionalised a process already underway.
The welfare state has not disappeared.
It has changed its character.
It now increasingly governs through contracts rather than citizenship.
Employment survives.
Rights diminish.
Security is promised.
Equality remains deferred.
"The tragedy of contemporary governance is not that the state has stopped employing people. It is that it has learned to employ them without accepting corresponding obligations."
"A society that seeks permanent commitment from workers while offering only temporary rights ultimately weakens the moral foundations of the welfare state."
Land, Caste and the Politics of Employment
Why Shrinking Public Employment Hurts Scheduled Castes and OBCs the Most
"For communities possessing land, unemployment is a crisis. For communities possessing neither land nor inherited wealth, unemployment becomes a catastrophe."
Unemployment is often discussed as an aggregate economic problem. Statistics speak of percentages, labour force participation and unemployment rates. Such abstractions, however, conceal the unequal social realities within which unemployment is experienced.
In Haryana, unemployment is not merely an economic phenomenon.
It is also a question of caste, class and social justice.
The consequences of shrinking employment opportunities are not equally shared. They are disproportionately borne by those communities that possess neither large agricultural holdings nor inherited economic capital.
For much of rural Haryana, government employment is not simply a career option.
It is the only available route towards social mobility.
"The question of employment in Haryana cannot be separated from the question of land."
Agrarian Prosperity and Social Inequality
Haryana is often celebrated as one of India's most prosperous agricultural states.
The average operational landholding of approximately 2.25 hectares is significantly higher than the national average. Irrigation coverage exceeds eighty percent and agricultural productivity remains among the highest in the country.
Yet averages conceal social inequalities.
Land ownership in Haryana remains concentrated among dominant agrarian castes, particularly Jats and sections of Ahirs and Gujjars. Historical access to land enabled these communities to accumulate economic resources and political influence.
Meanwhile, Scheduled Castes remain overwhelmingly landless.
The structure of agrarian ownership has changed little despite decades of economic growth.
Land Ownership and Social Hierarchy
Table 10
Approximate Distribution of Agricultural Land in Haryana
Social Category | Population Share | Share of Agricultural Land | Dominant Holding Pattern |
Dominant Castes (Jats, Ahirs, Gujjars etc.) | 30-35% | 85-86% | Small, Medium and Large Holdings |
OBC Communities | 25-30% | Roughly proportional | Marginal and Small Holdings |
Scheduled Castes | Around 20% | Less than 2-3% | Landless or Marginal |
Others | Remaining | Limited | Urban and Mixed Assets |
The implications are profound.
Land itself functions as social security.
Families possessing agricultural assets can absorb periods of unemployment. Those without land have no such protection.
Consequently, the burden of unemployment falls disproportionately upon Scheduled Castes and economically weaker sections among OBC communities.
Fragmentation of Agriculture
Even among landowning communities, agricultural viability has declined.
Successive divisions of property have fragmented holdings.
Table 11
Operational Holdings in Haryana
Category | Size of Holding | Share of Holdings |
Marginal | Below 1 hectare | About 46% |
Small | 1–2 hectares | Significant |
Semi-medium | 2–4 hectares | Moderate |
Medium and Large | Above 4 hectares | Concentrated among dominant castes |
Agriculture that once sustained joint families now struggles to support nuclear households.
Mechanisation and rising input costs have further reduced labour requirements.
Thus, even rural prosperity contains within itself growing insecurity.
Decline of Traditional Occupations
The economic transformation of Haryana has also destroyed many traditional occupations.
Communities historically associated with pottery, blacksmithing, carpentry, weaving, leather work and other artisanal crafts have witnessed the gradual erosion of their economic base due to industrialisation, mechanisation and changing patterns of production and consumption.
Industrial production and technological change rendered many hereditary occupations economically unviable.
The result is a profound transition.
Traditional occupations disappeared.
Alternative occupations failed to emerge at the same pace.
Education and employment consequently became the only routes to social mobility.
"Industrialisation destroyed old occupations faster than it created new opportunities."
Why Government Jobs Matter More to SC and OBC Youth
For dominant landowning groups, agriculture remains an economic cushion.
For landless households, wages and employment constitute the sole source of survival.
Government jobs offer regular income, pensionary benefits, access to housing loans, social prestige, economic security and opportunities for intergenerational mobility, making them a crucial instrument of social and economic advancement.
Reservation policies enabled many families to escape historical deprivation.
Teachers, clerks, police personnel and government officers became the first generation of secure earners in thousands of households.
Shrinking state employment therefore strikes at the foundations of social justice itself.
Reservation Without Recruitment
Reservations create opportunities only when posts are filled.
Vacancies render constitutional promises ineffective.
Table 12
Reservation and Recruitment
Situation | Social Outcome |
Regular recruitment | Representation and mobility |
Vacancies remain unfilled | Reservation benefits stagnate |
Contractual appointments | Reservation diluted |
Outsourcing through agencies | Reduced social justice |
Contractualisation creates a paradox.
Reservations exist constitutionally.
Employment opportunities shrink administratively.
Thus representation becomes increasingly symbolic.
Share in Government Employment
Although precise caste-wise employment data are unavailable, broad patterns indicate:
Table 13
Approximate Socio-Economic Position
Social Group | Land Ownership | Dependence on Government Jobs | Vulnerability to Unemployment |
Dominant Castes | High | Moderate | Moderate |
OBC Communities | Limited | High | High |
Scheduled Castes | Minimal | Very High | Very High |
Consequently, the contraction of regular employment disproportionately affects weaker sections.
The retreat of the welfare state becomes a retreat of social justice.
Education and Rising Aspirations
The expansion of schooling and higher education transformed aspirations.
First-generation learners emerged from Dalit and backward communities.
Families invested heavily in education.
Degrees multiplied.
Expectations rose.
Yet employment failed to keep pace.
This contradiction produced what sociologists describe as the "aspiration-reality gap."
Young people acquired qualifications.
The economy failed to provide opportunities corresponding to those qualifications.
The result is frustration, prolonged dependency and declining faith in institutions.
The Political Economy of Competitive Examinations
Recruitment examinations have become a way of life in Haryana.
Many young people spend years preparing for competitive examinations conducted by the HSSC, HPSC, SSC, Railways, banking institutions, the armed forces and police departments in the hope of securing stable and dignified employment.
Entire local economies revolve around coaching centres.
Yet delays, paper leaks and prolonged litigation often convert hope into despair.
For a family surviving on uncertain incomes, every postponed examination represents another year of anxiety.
"Unemployment does not merely delay careers. It delays marriages, houses and entire life trajectories."
Private Sector Employment: Promise and Limits
Industrialisation in Gurugram, Faridabad and Sonipat created employment opportunities.
However, several limitations persist:
1. Most jobs are contractual.
2. Wages remain modest.
3. Social security is weak.
4. Automation reduces labour intensity.
5. Skilled employment remains limited.
6. Rural youth often lack the linguistic and technical capital demanded by modern industries.
Thus private employment has not emerged as a complete substitute for public employment.
Why Social Justice Requires Public Employment
The Constitution envisaged public employment as an instrument of social transformation.
Articles 38, 39, 41 and 46 collectively impose an obligation upon the state to reduce inequalities and protect weaker sections.
Public employment historically enabled upward mobility, ensured representation, provided economic security and conferred dignity, thereby serving as an important instrument of social transformation and inclusion.
When regular posts remain vacant and contractual appointments proliferate, the burden falls disproportionately upon those already disadvantaged.
Thus the retreat of the welfare state deepens existing inequalities.
The Myth of Equal Competition
Merit is often presented as a neutral principle.
But competition itself presupposes unequal starting points.
A candidate from a prosperous landowning family often enjoys advantages unavailable to a landless household, including better schooling, access to coaching facilities, stronger social networks and greater economic security, thereby making competition inherently unequal.
Therefore, employment policy cannot be separated from historical inequalities.
Equal competition in unequal societies often reproduces inequality.
Beyond Economics: A Crisis of Dignity
Unemployment is not merely the absence of income; it also undermines self-respect, affects social standing and marriage prospects, weakens mental health and erodes trust in political and public institutions.
For historically marginalised communities, employment symbolises dignity.
Its absence revives insecurity.
Consequently, unemployment must be understood not merely as an economic issue but as a moral and political question.
Crisis of employment
The employment crisis in Haryana cannot be understood solely through aggregate statistics.
Behind every vacancy lies a social structure.
Land remains concentrated.
Traditional occupations have declined.
Agriculture no longer guarantees security.
Private employment remains precarious.
Under these circumstances, regular public employment becomes indispensable.
The contraction of the state therefore affects all citizens, but it injures the weakest most severely.
"For the privileged, unemployment is a temporary setback. For the landless and economically vulnerable, it threatens the very possibility of social mobility."
"Vacancies in public institutions are not merely administrative failures. They represent shrinking avenues of justice in a deeply unequal society."
Soldiers, Sportspersons and the Search for Livelihood
Military Service, Sporting Culture and the Political Economy of Aspirations in Haryana
"The soldier serves the nation, but he first seeks a livelihood. Patriotism may inspire service; economic security sustains it."
Few states in India have shaped national imagination like Haryana.
With barely two percent of India's population, Haryana has contributed disproportionately to the armed forces and to sports such as wrestling, boxing, hockey, athletics, kabaddi, shooting and cricket, earning a reputation far exceeding its demographic size.
The achievements of Haryana's youth are routinely celebrated as manifestations of patriotism, discipline and cultural values.
Such narratives are not entirely incorrect.
But they are incomplete.
Neither military service nor sporting excellence can be understood outside the socio-economic conditions that produced them.
Behind every soldier and athlete lies a society in which:
agriculture is increasingly fragmented;
non-farm employment remains inadequate;
government jobs symbolize security;
physical culture provides mobility.
The story of Haryana's military and sporting success is therefore inseparable from the political economy of aspirations.
"The village akhara became a gymnasium of mobility long before the state discovered sports policies."
Why Haryana Produces Soldiers
Haryana contributes one of the highest proportions of soldiers per capita to the Indian armed forces.
Popular explanations for Haryana's high military participation often emphasize martial traditions, nationalism, courage and a long-standing military heritage rooted in rural society.
These explanations contain elements of truth.
Yet they overlook material realities.
For generations, military service offered employment at a young age, a stable salary, pension and medical benefits, social prestige and post-retirement security, making it one of the most attractive avenues of upward mobility for rural households.
In agrarian households with uncertain incomes, military recruitment represented one of the few pathways to economic mobility.
The profession of arms acquired honour partly because it guaranteed livelihood.
The Village Economy and Military Recruitment
Historically, most recruits emerged from rural households.
The reasons were structural.
Agricultural holdings gradually fragmented.
Industrial employment remained limited.
Government jobs became increasingly competitive.
The armed forces offered certainty.
For a family with five or six acres of land divided among several heirs, military service appeared both respectable and economically rational.
The border became not merely a site of patriotism but also a site of employment.
Table 14
Why Rural Youth Prefer Military Service
Factor | Significance |
Early employment | High |
Salary and allowances | High |
Pension and healthcare | High |
Social prestige | High |
Family tradition | Moderate |
Patriotism | Significant |
Lack of alternatives | Very High |
Thus, nationalism and livelihood should not be viewed as opposing explanations.
Rather, they reinforce one another.
"To romanticise military service without acknowledging the economic conditions that make it attractive is to misunderstand both patriotism and poverty."
Agnipath and Changing Aspirations
The introduction of the Agnipath scheme altered traditional expectations associated with military service.
The attraction of the armed forces historically rested upon the promise of long-term security, pensionary benefits and stable careers that provided economic certainty and social mobility to generations of rural families.
A four-year tenure challenges that model.
Many rural families perceive military service not merely as service to the nation but as a lifelong economic anchor.
Consequently, uncertainty regarding post-service opportunities generates anxiety among aspirants.
The debate over Agnipath reveals a larger truth:
Employment security matters as much as employment itself.
Haryana's Sporting Culture: Society Before Policy
Long before sports universities, cash rewards and ministerial speeches, Haryana's villages nurtured physical culture.
The institutions that historically sustained this culture included akharas, village ponds, local tournaments, community patronage and familial traditions that collectively nurtured physical discipline and sporting excellence across generations.
Wrestling, kabaddi and athletics became embedded in everyday life.
Physical labour, milk-based diets and social recognition combined to create sporting cultures that required little bureaucratic intervention.
The state's later policies strengthened an already existing tradition rather than creating it.
Wrestling: The Pride of Rural Haryana
Wrestling occupies a special place in Haryana's social imagination, and international achievers such as Yogeshwar Dutt, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat emerged not from elite academies but from ordinary households, their remarkable journeys embodying sacrifice, village support and the determination of families that nurtured talent despite limited resources.
Boxing and the Rise of New Aspirations
Boxing transformed Haryana's sporting profile, with world-class pugilists such as Vijender Singh, Amit Panghal and Akhil Kumar inspiring thousands of young people to view sport as a pathway to social mobility, where athletic success translated into employment opportunities and medals became instruments of livelihood and economic advancement.
Hockey and the Rise of Women
Perhaps no story illustrates social transformation in Haryana better than women's hockey, where icons such as Rani Rampal and Savita Punia emerged from modest families and, through their extraordinary achievements, challenged patriarchy, caste barriers and class constraints, thereby redefining the meaning of success and expanding the horizons of aspiration for young women across the state.
Athletics and Neeraj Chopra
The Olympic gold medal won by Neeraj Chopra elevated Haryana's sporting identity to unprecedented heights.
His success demonstrated that excellence need not emerge from metropolitan centres.
Village India could compete with the world.
Neeraj Chopra became more than an athlete.
He became a symbol of aspiration.
Cricket and New Icons
Haryana's contribution to cricket spans generations.
Among its stars are: Kapil Dev, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shafali Verma.
Kapil Dev's leadership in the 1983 World Cup transformed Indian cricket.
Shafali Verma has become one of the most recognizable faces in women's cricket.
Why Sports Flourished Without Government Patronage
The remarkable aspect of Haryana's sporting success is that much of it preceded official enthusiasm.
Several factors contributed:
Agrarian Society
Physical labour created strength and endurance.
Community Recognition
Successful athletes brought prestige to villages.
Family Support
Parents invested scarce resources in training.
Informal Institutions
Akharas functioned as schools of discipline.
Social Competition
Inter-village rivalries nurtured excellence.
Thus, sporting culture was fundamentally societal rather than bureaucratic.
"Governments can reward excellence. They rarely create it."
The Political Uses of Sporting Success
Successive governments have sought to appropriate sporting achievements as evidence of administrative success.
Cash rewards and ceremonies undoubtedly matter.
Yet they should not obscure the fact that the foundations of sporting excellence were laid by society itself.
The danger lies in confusing recognition with creation.
Athletes were not produced by slogans.
They were produced by families, villages and years of struggle.
Yoga and the Politics of Symbolism
The inclusion of yoga in school curricula and recruitment examinations must be examined in this broader context.
There is nothing objectionable in learning yoga.
Physical well-being is desirable.
Yoga may enrich educational life.
But a fundamental question remains.
Will learning yoga address:
unemployment?
vacant posts?
contractualisation?
declining economic opportunities?
The problem is not yoga.
The problem is priorities.
"Young people do not reject yoga. They reject the substitution of symbolism for employment."
Haryana's Youth Need Opportunities, Not Sermons
Haryana's youth have repeatedly demonstrated their capabilities by joining the armed forces, winning Olympic medals, excelling in boxing, dominating wrestling and transforming women's sports, and these achievements bear testimony to their discipline and perseverance; consequently, what they seek from the state is not moral instruction but meaningful opportunities in the form of timely examinations, transparent recruitment, regular appointments, dignified jobs and long-term economic security.
Military service and sporting excellence in Haryana are often celebrated as expressions of patriotism and culture.
They are indeed that.
But they are also responses to economic realities.
Agrarian distress, fragmented holdings and limited opportunities made the armed forces and sports avenues of mobility.
To romanticise these choices while ignoring the conditions that produced them is to mistake consequence for cause.
Haryana's youth have never lacked discipline.
They have never lacked physical courage.
What they increasingly lack are secure economic opportunities.
"The greatest tribute to Haryana's youth is not to teach them discipline. It is to create conditions in which their talent can flourish with dignity."
Yoga, Symbolism and the Politics of Employment
Can Cultural Rhetoric Substitute the Responsibility of Creating Jobs?
"The issue is not whether young people should learn yoga. The issue is whether the state intends to conduct examinations to fill vacant posts."
On the occasion of the International Day of Yoga 2026, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced a series of measures aimed at institutionalising yoga within the state's educational and administrative framework.
Among the major announcements were:
introduction of yoga in Classes III to IX;
compulsory questions on yoga in HSSC and HPSC examinations;
establishment of a State Institute of Naturopathy and Yoga at Morni;
integration of yoga into university Centres of Excellence;
renaming Sports Departments as Departments of Sports and Yoga;
recognition of Yogasana as a sports discipline;
training of teachers and PTIs in yoga;
incorporation of Ayurveda into yoga curricula.
None of these measures is objectionable in itself.
Yoga, after all, forms part of India's cultural and philosophical heritage. Physical well-being and mental health deserve encouragement.
Yet public policy is judged not merely by what it promotes, but also by what it prioritises.
The timing and emphasis of these announcements raise a fundamental question.
Can symbolism substitute employment?
"The problem confronting Haryana's youth is not the absence of yoga. It is the absence of jobs."
The Politics of Symbolism
Political systems often employ symbolic interventions.
Symbols are inexpensive.
They are emotionally appealing.
They generate headlines.
Most importantly, symbols create an impression of activity without necessarily altering underlying realities.
Employment, however, is different.
Jobs demand:
budgetary commitments;
institutional capacity;
recruitment mechanisms;
long-term expenditure;
political will.
Consequently, governments frequently find symbolic politics easier than structural reforms.
The question, therefore, is not whether yoga should be promoted.
The question is whether yoga has been elevated into a substitute for more difficult conversations concerning unemployment and vacancies.
The Contradiction of Recruitment Examinations
The announcement that questions on yoga would become mandatory in HSSC and HPSC examinations invites a paradoxical question.
When will these examinations themselves be conducted?
Nearly 1.82 lakh regular posts remain vacant.
Thousands of educated youth spend years preparing for examinations delayed by:
litigation;
paper leaks;
administrative bottlenecks;
prolonged recruitment cycles.
In such circumstances, the issue is not the content of examinations.
The issue is the absence of examinations.
Adding questions while postponing recruitment amounts to debating the syllabus of a train that never arrives.
"Young people are not asking what questions will be asked. They are asking when examinations will be held."
Yoga and Haryana's Existing Sporting Culture
Haryana hardly suffers from a deficit of physical culture.
The state has produced Olympic champions, world champions, Commonwealth medalists and numerous national athletes, yet these achievements emerged largely without state coercion, as villages themselves nurtured generations of wrestlers, boxers, kabaddi players, hockey stars and shooters through traditions of community support, family sacrifice and indigenous sporting culture.
The success of Neeraj Chopra, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Vijender Singh, Manu Bhaker and Rani Rampal testifies to the social foundations of physical culture.
Therefore, the argument is not against yoga.
It is against confusing cultural enrichment with economic policy.
Constitutional Morality and the Question of Employment
The Constitution of India does not merely envision a cultural state.
It envisions a social welfare state.
Article 38
Directs the State to minimise inequalities.
Article 39(a)
Secures adequate means of livelihood.
Article 39(d)
Advocates equal pay for equal work.
Article 41
Directs the State to secure the right to work.
Article 43
Calls for living wages.
Article 46
Requires protection of weaker sections.
These provisions collectively reveal a constitutional philosophy.
The state exists not merely to preserve culture.
It exists to secure dignity.
Employment is not charity.
It is a constitutional aspiration.
"Civilisations are preserved through culture. Democracies are sustained through livelihoods."
The Retreat of the Welfare State
The historical trajectory of Haryana reveals a profound transformation.
The state once expanded regular employment.
It now increasingly prefers:
outsourcing;
contractualisation;
HKRNL deployments;
temporary appointments.
Permanent functions are increasingly performed by temporary workers.
Vacancies accumulate.
Recruitments slow.
Yet cultural symbolism expands.
This inversion of priorities reveals a larger ideological shift.
The welfare state retreats.
The performative state advances.
Employment as Social Justice
For large sections of Scheduled Castes and OBC communities, government jobs are not merely economic opportunities.
They are instruments of dignity and mobility.
Agricultural land remains concentrated.
Traditional occupations have collapsed.
Private sector employment remains uncertain.
In this context, vacancies are not administrative inconveniences.
They represent shrinking avenues of justice.
When nearly two lakh posts remain vacant, the burden falls disproportionately upon those who possess neither land nor inherited wealth.
Questions that Demand Answers
The youth of Haryana are entitled to ask:
Why do nearly 1.82 lakh regular vacancies exist?
Why are permanent functions performed by temporary employees?
Why have contractual arrangements become permanent policy?
Why are recruitment cycles so prolonged?
Why are paper leaks recurring?
Why does the state increasingly prefer low-cost labour?
Why has employment ceased to occupy the centre of public discourse?
These are not partisan questions.
They are democratic questions.
"The greatest crisis is not unemployment itself. It is the normalization of unemployment."
What Should Be Done?
1. Fill Vacant Posts
Regular vacancies should be filled through transparent recruitment.
2. Reduce Dependence on Contractual Labour
Permanent functions require permanent employees.
3. Strengthen Public Education and Healthcare
Population growth demands corresponding expansion of manpower.
4. Promote Labour-Intensive Industries
Private employment generation should complement public employment.
5. Reform Recruitment Institutions
Paper leaks and litigation must be addressed.
6. Ensure Equal Pay for Equal Work
Contractual workers performing similar duties deserve parity.
7. Reaffirm Constitutional Obligations
Employment should be viewed as social investment rather than fiscal burden.
Conclusion
The debate is not between yoga and employment.
Yoga is neither the enemy nor the problem.
Indeed, Haryana's youth can excel in yoga just as they have excelled in wrestling, boxing, hockey and athletics.
The problem lies elsewhere.
At a time when:
population has tripled;
agriculture has become fragmented;
traditional occupations have collapsed;
private employment remains uncertain;
nearly two lakh regular posts remain vacant;
the central concern of public policy ought to be employment.
The youth of Haryana do not require lectures on discipline.
They have demonstrated discipline in the fields, in the akharas, on international podiums and on the nation's borders.
What they seek from the state is not symbolism.
They seek opportunity.
Governments may shape narratives.
But societies are ultimately judged by whether they secure livelihoods.
"Civilisations inherit traditions; democracies inherit responsibilities."
Epilogue
The youth of Haryana have never lacked courage, discipline or talent.
They have produced soldiers who guarded borders, athletes who brought glory to the nation, farmers who fed the country and workers who built its cities.
The question before the state is not whether these young men and women are capable.
History has already answered that.
The question is whether public policy possesses the imagination and moral courage to match their aspirations.
For the true test of governance lies not in cultural proclamations but in its ability to secure dignity through work.
And no government, however eloquent, can indefinitely replace employment with rhetoric.
References
1. B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste.
2. Andre Béteille, Caste, Class and Power.
3. Surinder S. Jodhka, Caste in Contemporary India.
4. Jan Breman, Footloose Labour.
5. Prabhat Patnaik, Accumulation and Stability under Capitalism.
6. Utsa Patnaik, The Republic of Hunger.
7. A.R. Desai, Rural Sociology in India.
8. T.H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class.
9. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation.
10. Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
11. Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class.
12. Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution.
13. M.N. Srinivas, Social Change in Modern India.
