8,500 candidates appearing on runway of airstrip for home guard job in Odisha gone viral

The pay is less than £650 a day and the job is at the lowest rung of the force, requiring long hours on duty at police stations and law and order hotspots. But the job rush was so great that Odisha Police had to convert an airstrip into an examination hall for around 8,500 candidates vying for just 183 Home Guard posts in Sambalpur district on December 16. The footage has since gone viral.

Sambalpur Deputy Superintendent of Police (Home Guard) Bilkis Nesha said, “When we advertised for the recruitment of home guards for 183 posts, we did not know that so many candidates would compete for the job. More than 10,600 candidates applied for the job for which Standard V is the minimum qualification. We had to reject the applications due to insufficient qualification and maturity.”

Approximately 8,500 admit cards were distributed and sent to police stations to be distributed to candidates.

Ms Nesha said the Homeland Security post was not as easy as it seemed as candidates had to pass both written and skills tests. “We were determined to ensure a clean recruitment process. If the exams had been held in police stations, schools or colleges, it would have been an area of ​​nepotism. Therefore, the Sambalpur police administration took a unanimous decision to gather all the candidates at one place. Zamadarpali airstrip fit the bill perfectly,” he said.

More than 150 police personnel were assigned as supervisors in order to prevent malpractices in the written exam, which received 50 points in the field of general knowledge and composition. Modern surveillance measures, including drones and CCTV cameras, were also used to keep a close eye on the candidates.

Sambalpur police are yet to evaluate the reply texts. “During the application screening, we saw a large number of highly educated candidates applying, including graduates, diploma engineers and those with teacher training,” Ms Nesha said.

Describing the intense rush for a low-paying post, the DSP noted that Homeland Security officers are generally deployed in their own districts and are rarely deployed unless they are involved in serious indiscipline or corruption.

However, although the wages are lower than market prevailing daily wages, the fixed monthly payment of just over Rs 18,000 offers families a sense of stability and financial security, candidates said.

While the unusual venue and seating arrangement selection at the airstrip attracted national attention, police officials said similar participation was seen in Homeland Security officer recruitment in other regions.

according to Odisha Economic Survey-2025The state has improved in key employment indicators, especially the labor force participation rate and the worker population ratio, especially among women. However, while Odisha remains among the seven states with high labor force participation in agriculture, employment in industry and services, which are considered more stable sources of income, remains relatively low.

Employment remains a major political issue in the state. Prime Minister Mohan Majhi said his government has provided jobs to 30,032 people in the government sector since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in June 2024. The BJP government has promised 65,000 government jobs in its first two years and vowed to fill an additional 40,000 vacancies by June 2026.