296045292-IAS

people politics policy performance

Caste in Steel Frame

The policy

PARIAHS

A dalit wrote the most important policy document of the nation, our constitution.
But 63 years on, there have been very few IAS officers from SC/ST in the highest
echelons of policy-making. Why is this so? Are these officers who pass the most
gruelling exam of the country–with some positive discrimination, of course–so
incompetent that they deserve to rise only so much and no further? Or are they not
allowed to live down their caste identity even decades after entering the IAS?

Brajesh Kumar Ponder this: We have had a dalit I n a series of debates at
10 GovernanceNow | October 1-15, 2013 president, a dalit chief justice of the the round table con-
supreme court and we now have a dalit ference in 1931, BR
as speaker of the Lok Sabha. But we Ambedkar emerged as
have never had a dalit cabinet secre- the strongest votary of
tary. Why? Have we not found one dalit “Indianisation” of the
Indian Administrative Services (IAS) civil services in India. He
officer in 63 years fit enough to rise to insisted that all officers in
the zenith of the civil services? Or is the Indian Civil Services,
something else the problem? be they British or Indian,
This long essay is an attempt to find should be treated at par. It was this
answers to the “something” part of the thinking on equality – and of course,
question. the caste realities of India – that

Illustration: Ashish Asthana

contributed to him introducing reserva-
tions in public services.

For more than six decades now, each
year 22 out of every 100 candidates
who enter the royal portals of the IAS
– the most prized of all civil services in
the country – are from the SC/ST cat-
egory, or dalits and tribals as they are
called. As a result, there are hundreds
of SC/ST IAS officers in the country now.
Numerically at least, we seem to have
achieved proportional representation
for SC/ST in the IAS. Ambedkar must be
cheering in his grave. Or so you might
think.

The bitter truth, however, is that
equality of opportunity is still a far cry
and discrimination against SC/ST of-
ficers is so palpable that, forget about
becoming the cabinet secretary, it is a
major achievement if a SC/ST rises to be
an additional secretary or secretary in
the government of India.

“There is prejudice at every
step for an officer from the
reserved category. Although I
served in important positions
as JS, AS and secretary in the
ministries of petroleum and
finance, I had to fight for it.”

Devi Dayal
Retired SC IAS officer of 1966 batch

That shakes the foundations of our
generally-held belief that the IAS is one
homogenous monolith that subsumes
all caste, class, regional and religious
identities. It actually borders on dis-
belief; so some statistics, from the
most authentic source, the ministry of
personnel (which is the cadre control-
ling authority for the IAS and other
central services), might help. Look at
the accompanying table on pg 12, these
are figures given out by minister V
Narayansamy to parliament about the
number of SC/ST officers in the higher
echelons of the IAS (joint secretary and
above). In March 2011, out of 149 secre-
taries, only four were SC/ST (2.6%), out
of 108 additional secretaries, only four

www.GovernanceNow.com 11

people politics policy performance

Caste in Steel Frame

SC/ST officers in higher echelons of government as on March’11 ladder,” said an IAS officer from the
community.
Designation Total posts No. of general category officers No. of SC/ST officers % SC/ST officers
4 2.6% Minister Narayanasamy further told
Secretary 149 145 4 3.8% the Lok Sabha in March 2011: “There
46 9.6% is no provision for reservation for SCs/
Addl Secy 108 104 STs/OBCs in these posts (JS, AS and sec-
retary). As officers, on the above posts,
Joint Secy 477 431 are appointed on deputation basis
from various cadres, the percentage of
Source: Department of Personnel and Training SC/ST officers on these posts need not
be same as in their respective cadres.
were SC/ST (3.8%) and out of 477 joint Why merit argument does However, at the time of empanelment,
secretaries only 46 were SC/ST (9.6%). not merit attention every effort is made to empanel offi-
Few examples cers belonging to SCs/STs categories, if
Now if you recall that at entry level compiled by NCSC show necessary, by adopting liberal bench-
22 out of every 100 are SC/ST (22%) merit is not the monopoly of marks as compared to officers from
and compare that with the ratio of the upper castes alone General category.”
SC/ST secretaries in 2011 (2.6%) you
know that even numerically equality a Achyutananda Das, an SC can- That is so not true. In a report sub-
of opportunity claim stands exposed. didate, secured 613 marks out mitted to the government last year the
What the figures suggest is this: SC/ST of 1050 in the main entrance national commission for scheduled
officers have been systemically kept examination of IAS in 1950 castes (NCSC) highlighted the cases of
out of the highest echelons of policy- whereas N Krishnan, a general discrimination and called this situa-
making in the country, the echelons candidate, secured only 602. tion grave and called for urgent re-
that wield the real power of bureau- But in the interview Krishnan medial steps. “The government needs
cratic office. scored 260 marks out of 300 to do something about it urgently
and Das got only 110. Thus ulti- because there is this feeling amongst
So 63 years after Dr Ambedkar, a mately Das was assigned 48th officers of this community that they
dalit, wrote the mother of all policy position whereas Krishnan are deliberately kept out of the portals
documents—the constitution of In- topped the list. of power,” said a senior NCSC official.
dia—it is still not “safe” to trust SC/ST
IAS officers with the onerous job of a Similarly Anirudha Dasgupta, In January this year, the commis-
writing or influencing policy. As long a general candidate, was given sion received a petition from ten IAS
as they are on the periphery of policy- 265 marks out of 300 in inter- officers of the 1990 batch who have
making (such as drafting policy, but view when he has scored only alleged that in spite of their “outstand-
not deciding policy) they are tolerated. 494 out of 1050 in the written ing” ACRs (annual confidential reports
That is why most SC/ST officers rise examination. So ultimately or performance appraisal), they have
up to the level of joint secretary and he got 22nd position against been denied empanelment for joint
then go into a career-freezer. They 48th position by Achyutanan- secretaries. This petition is a rare
are made commissioners and chair- da Das. formal complaint. NCSC officials say
men of government bodies, away from there are a number of informal or oral
policy-making, into purely adminis- a In 2004, when the UP gov- complaints of discrimination against
trative jobs. Mata Prasad (IAS, 1962 ernment passed an order not SC officers. “We learnt of a 1979 batch
batch), one of the most respected dalit to disclose the identity/sur- officer from Haryana cadre, Raminder
officers of all time, rose to be the chief names of the candidates to the Jakhu, who has been denied em-
secretary of Uttar Pradesh (in itself it’s interview boards an SC can- panelment even as a joint secretary
exceptional) and was one of the con- didate, Himanshu Gautam, although his batch mates (Rajiv Takru
tenders for the post of the cabinet sec- broke the record by scoring and Ravi Mathur) are secretaries,”
retary in May 1998, when the Vajpayee 80% marks in the interview said an official from NCSC. Similarly
government came to power. of the state service commis- Chandra Prakash, an IAS officer from
sion. He got 9th rank eventual- 1982 batch, has not been empanelled
“The IAS brotherhood is a myth that ly. Since 2004 there have been as additional secretary even though he
needs to be broken. SC/ST officers several cases of SC/ST candi- has seven years of service left (one of
might think they have left behind their dates getting higher ranks in the arguments given for not empanel-
caste identity and that as IAS officers the merit list. ling SC/ST officers as additional secre-
they will reach the pinnacle of suc- taries and secretaries is that they enter
cess because everything being equal, the service late and therefore don’t
it is one’s performance that counts. have the length of service required to
But they are grossly mistaken. They reach the top or that when they do,
meet of wall of resistance at every
step and other officers gang up against
them to stop them from rising up the

12 GovernanceNow | October 1-15, 2013

Busting the age myth

O ne of the most common arguments for the ab- Avg age for IAS officers from general and SC ST categories
sence of SC/ST officers at the top rung of the bu-
reaucracy is that they enter the service late and Batch Avg age for general candidates Avg age for SC/ST candidates
therefore by the time they are eligible for the position 1983 24.8 yrs 26.8 yrs
of additional secretary/secretary (which takes about 30 2010 26.7yrs 28.2yrs
years of service), they are due for retirement.
two and a half years to go for retirement. And consider-
The basis for this argument is that while the general ing the fact that the DoPT guidelines stipulates a mini-
candidates get a maximum of four attempts at the civil mum of two years of residual service for the eligibility of
services examinations, SC/ST candidates get unlimited additional secretary and secretary, majority of the 1983
attempts and as a result general candidates enter the batch SC/ST officers should have qualified for the posi-
service at an average age of 24-25 years, while the SC/STs tion of additional secretary, the empanelment for which
qualify at the age of 30-32 years. was done early this year.

Governance Now analysed the civil list (the final list of However, out of 22 SC/ST officers of that batch, only two
IAS officers of a batch prepared after they complete their have been made additional secretary and two more have
training at the Mussoorie institute) of two batches of been given the additional secretary equivalent rank.
1983 and 2010, and found the argument baseless. For the
1983 batch the average age for general category officers And it’s not just the case of 1983 batch. In 1982 batch,
(first 50 officers) is 24.8 years and that for SC/ST officers Chandra Prakash, an SC officer, became an IAS at the
is 26.8 years. For the 2010 batch, the average age for gen- young age of 23. Today with more than six years of
eral category officers is 26.76 years and that for the SC/ST service left, he could have easily gone on to become a
officers is 28.23 years. secretary. However, when the time came for the empan-
elment of his batch for additional secretary, he was left
If we take 27.5 as the median age for the SC/ST officers, out.
after 30 years of service they would be 57.5 years with

they are left with very little service. “The batch of 1964 came up for given any important position in the
More on that later). empanelment for secretaries. central government. “His case proves
Many names went to the then that however bright a SC/ST officer
Then there is the case of Narendra home minister SB Chavan. is, he cannot enter the portals of real
Kumar, an IAS of 1988 batch who is He returned the file because power, the important policy making
posted as member, NHAI. Although there were no names from SC/ positions,” said an NCSC official.
he was ranked second in his batch, ST. Chavan asked the panel
he had to face discrimination from to include the names of dalit “There is prejudice at every step for
the start. He was denied the union and adivasis officers in the an officer from the reserved catego-
territory (UT) cadre, his first prefer- list. The file came back to him ry,” said Devi Dayal, a retired SC IAS
ence, and was allotted Assam Megha- with two recommendations officer of 1966 batch. Dayal is one of
laya cadre. According to an official But then what happened was the very few dalit/tribal officers who
of NCSC, one of his batch mates from unprecedented. Despite their retired as secretary in the govern-
general category, and much below names being approved by the ment of India. “Although I served in
him in the merit list, was adjusted in minister neither of them was important positions as JS, AS and sec-
the UT cadre instead of him. “Al- ever appointed secretary.” retary in the ministries of petroleum
though Kumar was considered in the and finance, I had to fight for it,”
general category based on his merit, PS Krishnan, he recalled. After his empanelment
he was denied the UT cadre as it did a former bureaucrat as joint secretary in 1992, his name
not have a vacancy for a reserved was recommended for a number of
category candidate” he said. Kumar important departments like those
did not take this deliberate discrimi- of economic affairs and industrial
nation lying down and went to central development but got rejected. “In
administrative tribunal (CAT), where the offer list, my name was on the
he won the case and was given the UT top but was not considered,” he said.
cadre. But then that was not the end Finally he met Margarat Alva, then
of discrimination. Kumar got empan- in charge of the ministry of person-
elled as joint secretary way back in nel. On her recommendation, he
2007, but ever since he has not been was posted as joint secretary in the

www.GovernanceNow.com 13

SC officers get their people politics policy performance
due in Bihar
Caste in Steel Frame
Kanhaiya Bhelari
the way forward
E ven as tales of discrimination against SC/ST officers
abound at the centre, Bihar presents a different “It is absolutely clear that the
story. Since 2005 when Nitish Kumar came to power, representation of SC and ST
IAS officers from the reserved category have been given in states has not reached the
their due, posted as they are in important positions. minimum required level keeping
in view the inadequacy of the
At least half a dozen SC IAS officers are currently heading representation in services, direct
important departments as secretaries. They include B Ra- recruitment and also filling up
jendra (rural works department), Deepak Kumar (minor ir- of posts through reservation in
rigation), Sudhir Kumar (science and technology), SM Raju promotion is a must.”
(SC/ST), S Sidharth (urban development) and KP Ramaiah
(commissioner of Tirhut). From a report of the national commission
for scheduled castes
Similarly, at the district level, out of total 38 districts, four
important ones that included Patna, Siwan, Madhepura ministry of petroleum where he served for seven years.
and Rohtas are headed by officers of the SC community. He retired as secretary banking.
The district magistrates in four of the state’s 38 districts
– Patna, Siwan, Madhepura and Rohtas – are from the SC PS Krishnan, a general category bureaucrat, retired
community. as secretary of social welfare department in 1990 and
is now a dalit rights activist. Krishnan told Gover-
Prior to 2005, there were hardly any SC/ST officers in any nance Now that in his career he saw several cases of
crucial position. It was Nitish who gave the much-needed discrimination against SC/ST officers. He gave us this
push, and also has at least one of the two private secretary example: “The batch of 1964 came up for empanelment
from the SCs – S Sidharth earlier, and Atish Chandra now. for secretaries. Many names went to the then home
minister SB Chavan. He returned the file because there
“My capability was recognised and used ever since Nitish were no names from SC/ST. Chavan asked the panel to
Kumar came to power in November 2005. Before that, my include the names of dalit and adivasis officers in the
superiors considered me a useless and lazy officer,” said list. The file came back to him with two recommenda-
an IAS officer of 1986 batch from the SC community who tions – Darshan Kumar and Vikram Sarkar. Kumar was
did not wish to be named. then with the planning commission and Sarkar was
posted in West Bengal. But then what happened was
In this state, all the three institutions that deal with elec- unprecedented. Despite their names being approved
tions are headed by SC officers. While Ajay Nayak is the by the minister neither of them was ever appointed
chief electoral officer, Hemchand Sirohi and Phool Singh secretary.”
are looking after the state election commission (SEC) and
state election authority (SEA) respectively. Citing another example, he recalled, “When I was sec-
retary of social welfare department in 1990, the list of
SC IPS officers in the state too are better placed than their 1979 batch IAS officers came for approval for the rank
counterparts in other states. Out of four police zones and of joint secretaries. In the list there was just one SC
11 police ranges, there is an SC officer each in both. Six candidate. When I pleaded with the cabinet secretary,
districts are headed by SC officers. Besides, the ADG cum seven more names were added.”
OSD, BSPBCC which has financial power for construction
of police buildings across the state and the police recruit- TSR Subramanian, who retired as cabinet secretary
ment wing are headed by SC officers. in 1998, admits there is discrimination against SC/ST
officers. “Yes, it is very much there and we all know it,”
While the SC/ST officers have certainly gained in the Nit- he told Governance Now.
ish regime, a few officers reached top positions in earlier
regimes as well. “It was Lalu Prasad who made Gorakh Prof Vivek Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University
Prasad Dohre the DGP,” said Jagadanand Singh, an MP isn’t surprised at discrimination against officers of this
from Lalu’s RJD. community. “Discrimination is the base of problem
that led to their selective exclusion from the gover-
Jiyalal Arya served as home secretary, though he credits nance process. It is an empirical reality,” he said.
his track record and not caste for that. According to him,
he first became home secretary in 1988, during the Saty-
endra Narayan Sinha government, and held the post also
during the next government headed by Jaganath Mishra.

14 GovernanceNow | October 1-15, 2013

The steps of discrimination Cases of to be fairly transparent, there is
discrimination no questioning why a certain officer
The first step of systemic discrimina- Mata Prasad is picked and another is not. Although
tion is taken at the Lal Bahadur Shas- (IAS, 1962) the poor grading in the ACR of the
tri National Academy of Administra- SC/ST officers could be (which again
tion at Mussoorie, where the seniority The case of Mata Prasad, who are prepared by upper caste officers)
list for IAS recruits is prepared. This was not appointed as cabinet one of the reasons why they are not
list, explained an officer, is prepared secretary when it was due to picked, the case of ten officers from
by giving 80 percent weightage to the him, is one of the most apparent 1990 batch who have been overlooked
marks obtained at the civil services ex- cases of discrimination against in the empanelment process for the
amination and only 20 percent to the dalit officers. During the final rank of joint secretaries, despite hav-
marks that an officer gets during the days of the IK Gujral-led United ing very good and outstanding grades,
training period at the academy. Since Front government in 1997, TSR defies explanation.
SC/ST candidates are invariably below Subramanian, who was already
the general candidates in the civil ser- on one year extension as cab- Only those empanelled for joint
vices merit list, they find themselves at inet secretary, was due to re- secretaries are considered for further
the bottom of the seniority list even if tire in December 1997. The next empanelment to additional secretar-
they excel at the academy. in line was Mata Prasad, who ies and secretaries. So in case no SC/
should have replaced Subrama- ST is selected at the joint secretary
Actually, some believe that discrimi- nian. But then Gujaral govern- level from a particular batch, there
nation starts much before – during the ment fell and his lameduck gov- will be no secretaries from that batch
interviews after the candidates clear ernment passed the buck to the in subsequent years. The history of
the gruelling civil services main exam. next government. In May 1998 IAS is replete with many such missed
There have been instances wherein when the Vajpayee government years for SC/ST officers. The fact that
dalit and tribal candidates who have came to power Mata Prasad we have not had a dalit secretary for
excelled in the written exam and are was not considered and instead more than a decade (from 2001, when
placed several notches above general Prabhat Kumar was made the Devi Dayal retired as banking secre-
candidates end up at the bottom of the cabinet secretary. tary, until April this year when Dr Lalit
heap after the interview (see box on Panwar of 1979 batch was appointed
pg 12). The Uttar Pradesh public ser- Chandra Prakash secretary, minority affairs) under-
vice commission conducted a unique (IAS, 1982) scores the subtle discrimination at the
experiment to eliminate deliberate or JS empanelment level.
default discrimination against SC/ST One of the arguments given for
candidates in interviews by not dis- shortage of officer at the rank Those who are lucky to be empan-
closing the surnames of candidates of additional secretaries from elled as joint secretaries and further
to the interview board. The results the reserved categories is that go on to become additional secretaries
were stunning. For the first time in they join service late and by the and secretaries are often sidelined to
decades, SC/ST candidates started time they become eligible to be insignificant postings. Devi Dayal was
showing up high in the merit list (see empanelled as additional secre- the last SC officer to be appointed as
box on pg 12). taries or secretaries they are on joint secretary and additional secre-
the verge of retirement. In case tary of a prominent ministry like that
The second step of discrimination of Chandra Prakash, he joined of petroleum.
comes during the empanelment pro- IAS in 1982 at the age of 23. With
cess. The selection of secretaries, ad- more than six years of service However, there is a flip side to the
ditional secretaries and joint secretar- left, he could have easily gone argument, too. Bahujan Samaj Party
ies is done through an empanelment on to become a secretary only if founder Kanshi Ram was never over-
process every year. The first step of he was empanelled as addition- awed by dalits breaking into the civil
empanelment of joint secretaries is al secretary. services. He believed that dalit officers
done through converting all the ACRs recruited through the reservation sys-
into marks and calibrated on to a scale tem tend to behave “super brahmins”.
of zero to ten every year. His pet line was “we want to be in a
position where we can give reserva-
“Now each year there are 120 to 150 tion to upper castes”.
officers in line for empanelment for
the position of joint secretaries. Out of Kanshi Ram did not live to see that
these only 40 to 50 are selected, and day. Generations more will come and
no prizes for guessing who make it to go before we get even an inch closer to
these coveted but limited posts,” says a that situation. n
dalit officer. While the process is said
With contribution from Trithesh Nandan

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