Reports about IIM Kashipur allegedly forcing students to fill up “opt out” forms after they failed to secure jobs through campus placements point to a larger malaise in the creation of formal jobs in the country, labour economists and academics have said.

In June, IIM Kashipur in Uttarakhand had asked about 70 MBA students to fill up “opt out” forms after they failed to land job offers. “As we approach the closure of our current placement cycle, we want all the unplaced students to formally opt out by completing and submitting the Opt-Out Form,” read the email sent to the students by the student placement committee under the supervision of the chairperson (placement).

IIM Kashipur sources said the decision to send the email was taken by the authorities.

IIM Amritsar is learnt to have informed students in July that they would be considered “opted out” of the placement process if they didn’t manage to get any job offer by February 2026.

The IIMs usually achieve nearly 100 per cent placement, but IIM Kashipur’s placement record was dismal in 2024-25, with 70 of the nearly 400 graduating students remaining unplaced.

However, the institute did not take any action against students who refused to fill up the “opt out” forms.

An IIM director said B-schools forcing students to opt out of the placement process was unprecedented. “The institute helps students to appear for 30-40 interviews for companies, depending on their specialisation. In case one or two students fail to get placed, they themselves declare that they have opted out. It is unethical for the institute to force students to fill opt-out forms,” he said.

Labour economist Santosh Mehrotra, a visiting professor at the University of Bath, said the placement data and IIM Kashipur’s action pointed to a larger crisis. “The IIM Kashipur episode shows the appalling jobs situation in the formal sector,” he said.

Mehrotra said 80 million workers were added to the agriculture sector between 2020 and 2024. “So many workers joining agriculture is unprecedented. It never happened anywhere in the world. It means people are taking up farming because they had no better job to do,” he said.

The number of youths not in education, employment or training in India is over 100 million, among the highest in the world, Mehrotra said.

“Are you creating enough jobs for all those who are joining the workforce? The failure of this government is much more than previous governments. The youth unemployment rate has doubled in the last 10 years,” he said.

IIM Kashipur said the institute was committed to providing suitable job opportunities to its students through the on-campus placement process. “To ensure transparency, IIM Kashipur has been publishing third-party audited placement reports in accordance with the Indian Placement Reporting Standards (IPRS) for the past two years, and we will continue to do so,” the IIM Kashipur chairperson (placement) said.

“As part of the auditing process, we are required to maintain signed declarations from each student — based on the classification table provided — without which students who have secured jobs off-campus or are pursuing further education would be incorrectly classified as ‘unplaced’,” the chairperson added.

“This classification not only helps in maintaining accurate records but also ensures that we provide correct data to prospective recruiters. The intent behind the email sent by the student placement committee was to appropriately categorise students and to better support those who were currently unplaced at that time,” the chairperson said.