India’s most elite service has been criticised for being elitist, self-serving, slow and painful. This raises the need for significant reforms in the Indian Civil Services. Once hailed as the steel frame of India, the most elite Indian Service has time and again come under the radar for the corruption in and out of the system. This also raises the question as to how elitist the system is and the various aspects of corruption associated with the service. In recent years, significant discrepancies have come to affect the Indian civil Services. There are significant loopholes in the system that have led to questions raised on the fairness, integrity, transparency and accountability of the exam. Scandals like these raise questions on the integrity and ethics of the examination system. These breaches takes place on both functional and operational levels. The article aims to address the various aspects of corruption in the system and also propose reforms in the civil services system.
One of the significant discrepancies is the disability criteria in the Indian civil services. The recent case of Puja Khedkar wherein she has allegedly availed the benefits of the OBC quota and the Person with Disabilities (PwD) category, which are meant for the marginalised communities. Another case is that of Abhishek Singh, a former IAS officer of the 2011 batch, who allegedly misused the quota under the Locomotor Disability (LD) category. These isolated events which span to more than ten in number, reflects upon the need for a robust verification process. One such case is the case of Kartik Kansal, a repeatedly successful candidate who has been denied his much deserved place in the civil service, simply due to his physical disability which is muscular dystrophy. This has been solely due to non-recognition of muscular dystrophy as an eligibility at that point of time. This also reflects upon the inclusivity and exclusivity factor within the system that marginalises the individuals with disabilities. As rightly proposed by Fauzi Khan, Honourable MP (Rajya Sabha) that there is a need for uniform standardisation of disability assessments and establishing proper standards for the standardisation of the physical requirement criteria across all the government services. Currently, the government has also taken steps for revamping the exam with the help of technology such as Aadhaar-based fingerprint authentication, facial recognition systems and CCTV using AI.
Secondly, there is also a need to move away from the generalist framework and invest in the specialised training of the civil servants. This can be done to segregate the service into important groupings based on the capabilities and interests of the individual. Institutional quality of the Indian civil service is a crucial aspect of the economic performance of the government. It has been pointed by Sanjeeva Chopra that the UPSC examinations cannot select ethically competent candidates and the ethics paper should be scrapped from the exam. This can be substituted with an additional paper with the one based on the priority of the candidate. For example, a person who has chosen the IAS as their priority can be given a paper on public policy formulation or people who have selected IFS as their first preference should be given a test on international affairs. A NITI Aayog report states that there are several constraints in the road towards the development of a highly efficient, transparent and accountable civil service as there is a mismatch between positions and skill sets and recruitment which is not competency specific. The Mission Karmayogi programme is a classic example towards bringing in the changes, however there is no report card on the success of the scheme. The dilemma as pointed out by a former civil servant Prabhir Jha is that “The challenge of change is that those who need to change are the one entrusted with the change.”
Moreover, the system operates under a flawed system of incentives and penalties for governing the civil services. It has also been rightly pointed out that one of the key causes of the bureaucratic indifference is due to the whimsical transfers of the civil servants and immense political pressure on the civil servants. The neutrality of the service from the day-to-day politics of the country is missing. This takes a toll on the proper governance and the fiscal prudence of the country as the populist policies take precedence over financially viable policies.
Thirdly, the anti-English rhetoric is one of the most debatable and recurring debates.There also had been claims by the aspirants in Hindi and regional-language that the CSAT exam is biassed towards the english-speaking folk. In India, English goes beyond just a language, it is the language of the social elite and a sign of upward social mobility. This is one of the legacies of British colonial rule in India. Though attempts have been made to change the nature of the service, it has remained more or less similar even after over 70 years of India’s independence. It is high time to decolonise the Indian civil services. Based on a RTI data from 2005 to 2010, the number of the candidates from Hindi medium background passing through the prelims was not much less compared to their English medium counterparts, however with the introduction of the English component at the Preliminary stages, saw a fall in the number of Hindi medium candidates making it through the Preliminary stage. There is also the issue of availability of good quality books in the Hindi medium. The upsc aspirants have long demanded that there should be inclusion of all twenty two regional languages (in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution) in the UPSC exams. The struggle for the conduct of the exam in all of the regional languages is a long drawn battle for fairness and upholding of constitutional rights. This step is much needed to give space for cultural diversity and inclusivity in the services.
Fourthly, gender is one of the most ignored aspects of understanding the exam. If one does the gendered study of the Indian Civil Services, the statistics are quite shocking. India still cannot boast of a woman in the post of a RBI governor, cabinet secretary or Chief Economic Advisor. From 1951 until 2020, women IAS officers account for only 13% of all IAS officers, based on the IndiaSpend analysis of the Indian Administrative Service Officers Dataset compiled by the Trivedi Centre for Political Data (TCPD) at Ashoka University. Out of the total of the 933 selected candidates, only 230 were women. An analysis reported that the distribution of the positions and positions among the various bureaucratic positions were gendered in nature as women IAS officers are most likely to be posted on the cultural affairs, education and welfare related departments. There are no clear rules and regulations for the promotion based entry into upper level and senior level positions, and this can particularly affect the candidature of the women. Though the number of women joining the civil services, the service remains a rather male-dominated service. Lastly, there is also the issue of the high level of absenteeism. According to a parliamentary committee report, around 32.29 lakh candidates applied for the exams in 2022-23 however only 16.62 lakh candidates appeared, which is around 51.95% of the total applications. This is also a huge burden and waste of time and money in the conduct of the examinations.
At least nine committees have been formed by the government for suggesting reforms in the Indian Civil Service systems. The recent one being the Baswan Committee. In 1976, the Kothari Committee also recommended that the candidates should not be allocated to different services before they join the Foundation Course. There are also other recommendations by the 2015 Expert Committee chaired by B. S Baswan, such as reducing the upper age limit, removal of the optional paper in the mains exams for maintaining an equal level field for the candidates. Howbeer, these reforms have been delayed, which needs immediate consideration from the government. To conclude, In a country like ours, the weight of the dream of civil services is immense. It is seen as an instrument of growth with lakhs of aspirants fighting all odds to conquer the exam. Therefore, there is a need for significant reform and reinvention of the Indian Civil services to overcome the credibility crisis of the system.
Written By – Sourishree Ghosh
Edited By – Sualiha Khan