Lucknow- Amidst the prestigious aura surrounding India's premier institutions, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), lies a stark reality: a growing wave of unemployment amongst their graduates.

Recent disclosures through Right To Information (RTI) filings have unearthed alarming statistics, painting a picture of struggling placements across various IIT campuses.

Despite their esteemed status, these institutions are grappling with an unsettling trend, raising questions about the efficacy of the education system and the challenges faced by the country's brightest minds in securing employment opportunities.

RTI (Right To Information) applications, across various IITs, have shed light on the growing scourge of unemployment in the country. The latest revelation is from IIT Hyderabad, where about 46% of the students, at the relatively new IIT, are yet to be placed.

According to the reply to an RTI application filed by Dheeraj Kumar Singh, an IIT Kanpur alumni who runs the Global IIT Alumni Support group and had filed RTI applications across various IITs, against a registration of 843 students, only 451 students could be placed, leaving about 392 students unplaced as of yet. The institute has clarified in the reply that phase 2 of the placement is underway.

However, a student at the campus speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Mooknayak, "The phase 2 began in January and is practically over for the B.Tech students as they will leave in a week or so, after their exams are over; although for the PG (M.Tech) students like us, we still have 2 months."

An observer of the placement trends told The Mooknayak that going by last year's trends, 90% of the placements are over and at least 40% of the students will still be left without job offers. This is concerning given that the figures for the last two years, 2023 and 2022, were 23% and 22% respectively.

BHU to Kharagpur: Old Institute Also Faces Crisis

It is not only the new universities that are facing placement crises. At IIT BHU, one of the oldest engineering colleges in the country, around 40% of students are yet to secure placement this year as per the RTI reply. This is the highest in three years, considering that 24% and 19% were not placed in the years 2023 and 2022 respectively, as per RTI.

In the academic year 2021-22, 1328 students at IIT BHU registered for placements, out of which 1,078 students got placed. In 2022-23, 1,428 students of various departments registered to get placed and 1,092 managed to get placements. But in 2023-24, the number of placed students dropped to 1,043, whereas the number of registered students rose to 1,735, i.e., around 40% of the students could not get placed.

The Indian Institute of Technology campus at the BHU campus has its origin in pre-independence India and was established as the Banaras Engineering College in 1919, making it one of the oldest engineering colleges in India. In 2012, it was designated as the Indian Institute of Technology.

At IIT Kharagpur, 33% of students were yet to secure placements in 2023. In a reply to RTI, The Career Development Centre (CDC) of Institute disclosed that out of 2,490 students who registered for placements in the 2022-2023 season, only 1,675 students were successfully placed, while 574 received pre-placement offers (PPOs).

IIT Madras, another old and prestigious institute in India, also had about 45% of its students without placements. Out of a total of 2,100 students registered for placement opportunities, 1,150 students have managed to secure placements in either two phases, leaving 950 students still without job offers, according to RTI.

The trend is concurrent with low placements across other IITs. RTI applications across various campuses of IITs had revealed that nearly 44% of the students at IIT Indore and a similar trend was seen at the Ropar based campus of IIT where 31% of the students were yet to be placed.

IIT Delhi: Coveted IIT Not a Guarantee of Placements

IIT Delhi, considered to be amongst the Top IITs, also saw lukewarm placements as only 60% of the students managed to get placements from the institute.

Speaking to The Mooknayak, Dheeraj Singh said, "IIT Delhi is among the best engineering colleges in India as per NIRF ranking, but as per the RTI reply, 600 students were unplaced in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in the last two years. This year, he said out of the 1814 students registered for placements in IIT Delhi, only 1083 students could be placed till 5th April, leaving 731 students of the institute unplaced. The situation is worse in PG (MTECH), where a whooping 559 students or 61% students couldn’t get job offers."

This figure is quite alarming if we consider that only 243 or 16% of the students remained unplaced last year in 2023. These statistics shed light on the complexities of the job market and the pressures faced by students from even the most prestigious institutions in the country.

Campus Placement: The Platform for the Students to Land a Job

The placement season begins in the final year of the course. The companies interested in making offers introduce themselves through Pre-Placement Talks. These talks may take place in online or offline mode. This is followed by registration and submission of resumes by students and shortlisting by companies. In the next stage, tests and interviews are conducted by companies to evaluate candidates. Generally, the companies shortlist candidates for the interviews based on the written tests. However, sometimes they may call all the applicants for the interview. The candidates may be evaluated over a mix of parameters viz, test score, language, confidence, past academic scores, etc. Most of the companies conduct both the test and the interview while some companies also conduct Group Discussions to judge candidates. Companies make job offers to selected candidates, who can then accept or decline the offer.

No placement after years of hard work and fee expenditure can prove to be a confidence-crumbler for the students. The fee structure of IITs varies, and the total expenditure, which includes lodging, boarding, tuition fees, can cross Rs. 10 lakh for a B.Tech student.

This is to be remembered that the IITs are considered to be the most prestigious educational institutes in India, and selection in these coveted institutes is considered to be a passport to success. But in 2019, Sharvan Kumar, a B.Tech and M.Tech student from IIT Bombay, had shocked everyone when he joined Indian Railways as a Grade D (unskilled) employee.

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