The Sarkari Obsession: Redefining Success for Sikkim's Youth

BHARGAVI CINTURY 1st Year Graduate, Gargi College, Delhi University

Walk into any home in Gangtok, Namchi, or Geyzing on a weekday morning and you will probably find the same thing — a young person at a desk, surrounded by civil service guides, GK books, and last year's exam papers. They hold degrees. Some of them are genuinely brilliant. But instead of working, they are waiting. Waiting for the next recruitment notification, the next vacancy list, the next shot at a government job that may or may not arrive.

This is not a new story in Sikkim. The pull of a sarkari naukri runs deep here, deeper than most people care to admit. And it makes sense, if you look at the history. For decades, the public sector was almost the only place in these hills where a young person could find stable, decent-paying work. That reality shaped an entire generation's understanding of what success looks like — a government desk, a fixed salary, a pension. Parents who lived through uncertain times naturally passed that preference down, and it stuck.

The problem is that the world has moved on, but the mindset has not fully caught up.

Today, thousands of educated young Sikkimese are stuck in a bottleneck — not because they lack ability, but because they are all chasing a finite number of public vacancies. Government recruitment does not expand to meet demand. It never did. So the more people prepare exclusively for it, the worse the odds get, and the longer the wait. Years go by. The most energetic, creative phase of a person's working life quietly slips away in a preparation cycle that may never end with the outcome they hoped for.

This is the quiet cost the state is paying for its sarkari obsession — and it is not a small one.

To his credit, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay) has been direct about this. He has repeatedly pushed Sikkim's youth to look beyond government service — to take risks, plan carefully, and build something of their own. What makes this more than just advice is that his government has actually put money and structure behind the idea. The Mukhyamantri Yuva Udhyamsheelta Vikas Yojna and the Chief Minister Employment Fund are not just names on a scheme list. They offer real support — 50% grants on project costs, subsidised loans of up to ?25 lakh routed through District Industries Centres. For a young person with an idea but no capital, that kind of backing is significant. Programmes like Sikkim INSPIRES and CM-ELEVATE have added more layers to this push, trying to build an actual environment where entrepreneurship feels like a real option rather than a gamble.

The direction is right. The question is whether society will follow where policy is trying to lead.

Because government schemes alone cannot break a cultural mindset. As long as a young person who starts a small business is quietly looked down upon at family gatherings — while their cousin who cleared a state exam is celebrated — the obsession will hold. Change at that level does not come from a circular or a notification. It comes slowly, from families beginning to see that a young woman running a successful homestay in Pelling or a young man building a food processing unit in Jorethang is not settling for less. They are choosing differently.

Sikkim's economy is increasingly shaped by organic agriculture, sustainable tourism, digital services, and small enterprises. The opportunities are real and they are growing. But they will go to people who show up for them, not to people still waiting for a vacancy list that may never come.

The sarkari obsession gave previous generations a kind of security. But for today's youth, it is quietly becoming a ceiling. Somewhere, that has to be said plainly — and perhaps the best people to say it are the young Sikkimese who have already stepped out and built something worth being proud of.

(Views are personal. Email: cinturybhargavi11@gmail.com)