The expression doing rounds in the circle of officials of the State Government that the day of retirement, virtually the D-Day as a certainty sounds like an adage. They are a mix of those who look forward, reasonably gleefully, to that happening, some who take it as a fait accompli and the rest dreading the day for diverse reasons. As far as the Government is concerned, the event of retirement, a non-event in reality, being routine, prompts one to cite the line Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever drawn from the poem
The Brook by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) with the message that humans are mortal but nature is eternal, substituting the word humans by the term Government employee and the word nature by Government. The farming fraternity is often referred to as the country’s backbone, but the babudom is all bones of the Government, creating aches and pains to the powers that be during their years of perch in the seats wielding their quill with disdain.
The workforce of the country has its major presence in the unorganised sector, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the total and the rest comprising a) Central Government staff (nearly 50 lakh), b) Staff of 36 States and Union Territories (about 100 lakh), c) Employees of Public Sector Undertakings, d) Employees of Corporates, e) Staff of financial institutions and f) Employees of quasi-Government establishments. Only about 20 per cent of the total workforce enter and also exit their respective establishments by following formal process and on precise dates.
