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 countrywith some positive discrimination, of courseso
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

10 GovernanceNow | October 1-15, 2013

Ponder this: We have had a dalit

president, a dalit chief justice of the
supreme court and we now have a dalit
as speaker of the Lok Sabha. But we
have never had a dalit cabinet secretary. Why? Have we not found one dalit
Indian Administrative Services (IAS)
officer in 63 years fit enough to rise to
the zenith of the civil services? Or is
something else the problem?
This long essay is an attempt to find
answers to the something part of the
question.

n a series of debates at
the round table conference in 1931, BR
Ambedkar emerged as
the strongest votary of
Indianisation of the
civil services in India. He
insisted that all officers in
the Indian Civil Services,
be they British or Indian,
should be treated at par. It was this
thinking on equality and of course,
the caste realities of India that

Illustration: Ashish Asthana

contributed to him introducing reservations 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 category, 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 officers 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 disbelief; so some statistics, from the
most authentic source, the ministry of
personnel (which is the cadre controlling 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 secretaries, only four were SC/ST (2.6%), out
of 108 additional secretaries, only four

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people politics policy performance

Caste in Steel Frame

SC/ST officers in higher echelons of government as on March11

Designation

Total posts

No. of general category officers

No. of SC/ST officers

% SC/ST officers

Secretary

149

145

2.6%

Addl Secy

108

104

3.8%

Joint Secy

477

431

46

9.6%

Source: Department of Personnel and Training

were SC/ST (3.8%) and out of 477 joint

secretaries only 46 were SC/ST (9.6%).
Now if you recall that at entry level
22 out of every 100 are SC/ST (22%)
and compare that with the ratio of the
SC/ST secretaries in 2011 (2.6%) you
know that even numerically equality
of opportunity claim stands exposed.
What the figures suggest is this: SC/ST
officers have been systemically kept
out of the highest echelons of policymaking in the country, the echelons
that wield the real power of bureaucratic office.
So 63 years after Dr Ambedkar, a
dalit, wrote the mother of all policy
documentsthe constitution of Indiait is still not safe to trust SC/ST
IAS officers with the onerous job of
writing or influencing policy. As long
as they are on the periphery of policymaking (such as drafting policy, but
not deciding policy) they are tolerated.
That is why most SC/ST officers rise
up to the level of joint secretary and
then go into a career-freezer. They
are made commissioners and chairmen of government bodies, away from
policy-making, into purely administrative jobs. Mata Prasad (IAS, 1962
batch), one of the most respected dalit
officers of all time, rose to be the chief
secretary of Uttar Pradesh (in itself its
exceptional) and was one of the contenders for the post of the cabinet secretary in May 1998, when the Vajpayee
government came to power.
The IAS brotherhood is a myth that
needs to be broken. SC/ST officers
might think they have left behind their
caste identity and that as IAS officers
they will reach the pinnacle of success because everything being equal,
it is ones performance that counts.
But they are grossly mistaken. They
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

Why merit argument does

not merit attention
Few examples
compiled by NCSC show
merit is not the monopoly of
upper castes alone
a Achyutananda Das, an SC candidate, secured 613 marks out
of 1050 in the main entrance
examination of IAS in 1950
whereas N Krishnan, a general
candidate, secured only 602.
But in the interview Krishnan
scored 260 marks out of 300
and Das got only 110. Thus ultimately Das was assigned 48th
position whereas Krishnan
topped the list.
a Similarly Anirudha Dasgupta,
a general candidate, was given
265 marks out of 300 in interview when he has scored only
494 out of 1050 in the written
examination. So ultimately
he got 22nd position against
48th position by Achyutananda Das.
a In 2004, when the UP government passed an order not
to disclose the identity/surnames of the candidates to the
interview boards an SC candidate, Himanshu Gautam,
broke the record by scoring
80% marks in the interview
of the state service commission. He got 9th rank eventually. Since 2004 there have been
several cases of SC/ST candidates getting higher ranks in
the merit list.

ladder, said an IAS officer from the

community.
Minister Narayanasamy further told
the Lok Sabha in March 2011: There
is no provision for reservation for SCs/
STs/OBCs in these posts (JS, AS and secretary). As officers, on the above posts,
are appointed on deputation basis
from various cadres, the percentage of
SC/ST officers on these posts need not
be same as in their respective cadres.
However, at the time of empanelment,
every effort is made to empanel officers belonging to SCs/STs categories, if
necessary, by adopting liberal benchmarks as compared to officers from
General category.
That is so not true. In a report submitted to the government last year the
national commission for scheduled
castes (NCSC) highlighted the cases of
discrimination and called this situation grave and called for urgent remedial steps. The government needs
to do something about it urgently
because there is this feeling amongst
officers of this community that they
are deliberately kept out of the portals
of power, said a senior NCSC official.
In January this year, the commission received a petition from ten IAS
officers of the 1990 batch who have
alleged that in spite of their outstanding ACRs (annual confidential reports
or performance appraisal), they have
been denied empanelment for joint
secretaries. This petition is a rare
formal complaint. NCSC officials say
there are a number of informal or oral
complaints of discrimination against
SC officers. We learnt of a 1979 batch
officer from Haryana cadre, Raminder
Jakhu, who has been denied empanelment even as a joint secretary
although his batch mates (Rajiv Takru
and Ravi Mathur) are secretaries,
said an official from NCSC. Similarly
Chandra Prakash, an IAS officer from
1982 batch, has not been empanelled
as additional secretary even though he
has seven years of service left (one of
the arguments given for not empanelling SC/ST officers as additional secretaries and secretaries is that they enter
the service late and therefore dont
have the length of service required to
reach the top or that when they do,

Busting the age myth

ne of the most common arguments for the absence of SC/ST officers at the top rung of the bureaucracy is that they enter the service late and
therefore by the time they are eligible for the position
of additional secretary/secretary (which takes about 30
years of service), they are due for retirement.
The basis for this argument is that while the general
candidates get a maximum of four attempts at the civil
services examinations, SC/ST candidates get unlimited
attempts and as a result general candidates enter the
service at an average age of 24-25 years, while the SC/STs
qualify at the age of 30-32 years.
Governance Now analysed the civil list (the final list of
IAS officers of a batch prepared after they complete their
training at the Mussoorie institute) of two batches of
1983 and 2010, and found the argument baseless. For the
1983 batch the average age for general category officers
(first 50 officers) is 24.8 years and that for SC/ST officers
is 26.8 years. For the 2010 batch, the average age for general category officers is 26.76 years and that for the SC/ST
officers is 28.23 years.
If we take 27.5 as the median age for the SC/ST officers,
after 30 years of service they would be 57.5 years with

they are left with very little service.

More on that later).
Then there is the case of Narendra
Kumar, an IAS of 1988 batch who is
posted as member, NHAI. Although
he was ranked second in his batch,
he had to face discrimination from
the start. He was denied the union
territory (UT) cadre, his first preference, and was allotted Assam Meghalaya cadre. According to an official
of NCSC, one of his batch mates from
general category, and much below
him in the merit list, was adjusted in
the UT cadre instead of him. Although Kumar was considered in the
general category based on his merit,
he was denied the UT cadre as it did
not have a vacancy for a reserved
category candidate he said. Kumar
did not take this deliberate discrimination lying down and went to central
administrative tribunal (CAT), where
he won the case and was given the UT
cadre. But then that was not the end
of discrimination. Kumar got empanelled as joint secretary way back in
2007, but ever since he has not been

Avg age for IAS officers from general and SC ST categories

Batch

Avg age for general candidates

Avg age for SC/ST candidates

1983

24.8 yrs

26.8 yrs

2010

26.7yrs

28.2yrs

two and a half years to go for retirement. And considering the fact that the DoPT guidelines stipulates a minimum of two years of residual service for the eligibility of
additional secretary and secretary, majority of the 1983
batch SC/ST officers should have qualified for the position of additional secretary, the empanelment for which
was done early this year.
However, out of 22 SC/ST officers of that batch, only two
have been made additional secretary and two more have
been given the additional secretary equivalent rank.
And its not just the case of 1983 batch. In 1982 batch,
Chandra Prakash, an SC officer, became an IAS at the
young age of 23. Today with more than six years of
service left, he could have easily gone on to become a
secretary. However, when the time came for the empanelment of his batch for additional secretary, he was left
out.

The batch of 1964 came up for

empanelment for secretaries.
Many names went to the then
home minister SB Chavan.
He returned the file because
there were no names from SC/
ST. Chavan asked the panel
to include the names of dalit
and adivasis officers in the
list. The file came back to him
with two recommendations
But then what happened was
unprecedented. Despite their
names being approved by the
minister neither of them was
ever appointed secretary.
PS Krishnan,
a former bureaucrat

given any important position in the

central government. His case proves
that however bright a SC/ST officer
is, he cannot enter the portals of real
power, the important policy making
positions, said an NCSC official.
There is prejudice at every step for
an officer from the reserved category, said Devi Dayal, a retired SC IAS
officer of 1966 batch. Dayal is one of
the very few dalit/tribal officers who
retired as secretary in the government of India. Although I served in
important positions as JS, AS and secretary in the ministries of petroleum
and finance, I had to fight for it,
he recalled. After his empanelment
as joint secretary in 1992, his name
was recommended for a number of
important departments like those
of economic affairs and industrial
development but got rejected. In
the offer list, my name was on the
top but was not considered, he said.
Finally he met Margarat Alva, then
in charge of the ministry of personnel. On her recommendation, he
was posted as joint secretary in the

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people politics policy performance

Caste in Steel Frame

SC officers get their

due in Bihar
Kanhaiya Bhelari

ven as tales of discrimination against SC/ST officers

abound at the centre, Bihar presents a different
story. Since 2005 when Nitish Kumar came to power,
IAS officers from the reserved category have been given
their due, posted as they are in important positions.
At least half a dozen SC IAS officers are currently heading
important departments as secretaries. They include B Rajendra (rural works department), Deepak Kumar (minor irrigation), Sudhir Kumar (science and technology), SM Raju
(SC/ST), S Sidharth (urban development) and KP Ramaiah
(commissioner of Tirhut).
Similarly, at the district level, out of total 38 districts, four
important ones that included Patna, Siwan, Madhepura
and Rohtas are headed by officers of the SC community.
The district magistrates in four of the states 38 districts
Patna, Siwan, Madhepura and Rohtas are from the SC
community.
Prior to 2005, there were hardly any SC/ST officers in any
crucial position. It was Nitish who gave the much-needed
push, and also has at least one of the two private secretary
from the SCs S Sidharth earlier, and Atish Chandra now.
My capability was recognised and used ever since Nitish
Kumar came to power in November 2005. Before that, my
superiors considered me a useless and lazy officer, said
an IAS officer of 1986 batch from the SC community who
did not wish to be named.
In this state, all the three institutions that deal with elections are headed by SC officers. While Ajay Nayak is the
chief electoral officer, Hemchand Sirohi and Phool Singh
are looking after the state election commission (SEC) and
state election authority (SEA) respectively.
SC IPS officers in the state too are better placed than their
counterparts in other states. Out of four police zones and
11 police ranges, there is an SC officer each in both. Six
districts are headed by SC officers. Besides, the ADG cum
OSD, BSPBCC which has financial power for construction
of police buildings across the state and the police recruitment wing are headed by SC officers.
While the SC/ST officers have certainly gained in the Nitish regime, a few officers reached top positions in earlier
regimes as well. It was Lalu Prasad who made Gorakh
Prasad Dohre the DGP, said Jagadanand Singh, an MP
from Lalus RJD.
Jiyalal Arya served as home secretary, though he credits
his track record and not caste for that. According to him,
he first became home secretary in 1988, during the Satyendra Narayan Sinha government, and held the post also
during the next government headed by Jaganath Mishra.

14 GovernanceNow | October 1-15, 2013

the way forward

It is absolutely clear that the
representation of SC and ST
in states has not reached the
minimum required level keeping
in view the inadequacy of the
representation in services, direct
recruitment and also filling up
of posts through reservation in
promotion is a must.
From a report of the national commission
for scheduled castes

ministry of petroleum where he served for seven years.

He retired as secretary banking.
PS Krishnan, a general category bureaucrat, retired
as secretary of social welfare department in 1990 and
is now a dalit rights activist. Krishnan told Governance Now that in his career he saw several cases of
discrimination against SC/ST officers. He gave us this
example: The batch of 1964 came up for empanelment
for secretaries. Many names went to the then home
minister SB Chavan. He returned the file because there
were no names from SC/ST. Chavan asked the panel to
include the names of dalit and adivasis officers in the
list. The file came back to him with two recommendations Darshan Kumar and Vikram Sarkar. Kumar was
then with the planning commission and Sarkar was
posted in West Bengal. But then what happened was
unprecedented. Despite their names being approved
by the minister neither of them was ever appointed
secretary.
Citing another example, he recalled, When I was secretary of social welfare department in 1990, the list of
1979 batch IAS officers came for approval for the rank
of joint secretaries. In the list there was just one SC
candidate. When I pleaded with the cabinet secretary,
seven more names were added.
TSR Subramanian, who retired as cabinet secretary
in 1998, admits there is discrimination against SC/ST
officers. Yes, it is very much there and we all know it,
he told Governance Now.
Prof Vivek Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University
isnt surprised at discrimination against officers of this
community. Discrimination is the base of problem
that led to their selective exclusion from the governance process. It is an empirical reality, he said.

The steps of discrimination

The first step of systemic discrimination is taken at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie, where the seniority
list for IAS recruits is prepared. This
list, explained an officer, is prepared
by giving 80 percent weightage to the
marks obtained at the civil services examination and only 20 percent to the
marks that an officer gets during the
training period at the academy. Since
SC/ST candidates are invariably below
the general candidates in the civil services merit list, they find themselves at
the bottom of the seniority list even if
they excel at the academy.
Actually, some believe that discrimination starts much before during the
interviews after the candidates clear
the gruelling civil services main exam.
There have been instances wherein
dalit and tribal candidates who have
excelled in the written exam and are
placed several notches above general
candidates end up at the bottom of the
heap after the interview (see box on
pg 12). The Uttar Pradesh public service commission conducted a unique
experiment to eliminate deliberate or
default discrimination against SC/ST
candidates in interviews by not disclosing the surnames of candidates
to the interview board. The results
were stunning. For the first time in
decades, SC/ST candidates started
showing up high in the merit list (see
box on pg 12).
The second step of discrimination
comes during the empanelment process. The selection of secretaries, additional secretaries and joint secretaries is done through an empanelment
process every year. The first step of
empanelment of joint secretaries is
done through converting all the ACRs
into marks and calibrated on to a scale
of zero to ten every year.
Now each year there are 120 to 150
officers in line for empanelment for
the position of joint secretaries. Out of
these only 40 to 50 are selected, and
no prizes for guessing who make it to
these coveted but limited posts, says a
dalit officer. While the process is said

Cases of
discrimination
Mata Prasad
(IAS, 1962)
The case of Mata Prasad, who
was not appointed as cabinet
secretary when it was due to
him, is one of the most apparent
cases of discrimination against
dalit officers. During the final
days of the IK Gujral-led United
Front government in 1997, TSR
Subramanian, who was already
on one year extension as cabinet secretary, was due to retire in December 1997. The next
in line was Mata Prasad, who
should have replaced Subramanian. But then Gujaral government fell and his lameduck government passed the buck to the
next government. In May 1998
when the Vajpayee government
came to power Mata Prasad
was not considered and instead
Prabhat Kumar was made the
cabinet secretary.

Chandra Prakash
(IAS, 1982)
One of the arguments given for
shortage of officer at the rank
of additional secretaries from
the reserved categories is that
they join service late and by the
time they become eligible to be
empanelled as additional secretaries or secretaries they are on
the verge of retirement. In case
of Chandra Prakash, he joined
IAS in 1982 at the age of 23. With
more than six years of service
left, he could have easily gone
on to become a secretary only if
he was empanelled as additional secretary.

to be fairly transparent, there is

no questioning why a certain officer
is picked and another is not. Although
the poor grading in the ACR of the
SC/ST officers could be (which again
are prepared by upper caste officers)
one of the reasons why they are not
picked, the case of ten officers from
1990 batch who have been overlooked
in the empanelment process for the
rank of joint secretaries, despite having very good and outstanding grades,
defies explanation.
Only those empanelled for joint
secretaries are considered for further
empanelment to additional secretaries and secretaries. So in case no SC/
ST is selected at the joint secretary
level from a particular batch, there
will be no secretaries from that batch
in subsequent years. The history of
IAS is replete with many such missed
years for SC/ST officers. The fact that
we have not had a dalit secretary for
more than a decade (from 2001, when
Devi Dayal retired as banking secretary, until April this year when Dr Lalit
Panwar of 1979 batch was appointed
secretary, minority affairs) underscores the subtle discrimination at the
JS empanelment level.
Those who are lucky to be empanelled as joint secretaries and further
go on to become additional secretaries
and secretaries are often sidelined to
insignificant postings. Devi Dayal was
the last SC officer to be appointed as
joint secretary and additional secretary of a prominent ministry like that
of petroleum.
However, there is a flip side to the
argument, too. Bahujan Samaj Party
founder Kanshi Ram was never overawed by dalits breaking into the civil
services. He believed that dalit officers
recruited through the reservation system tend to behave super brahmins.
His pet line was we want to be in a
position where we can give reservation to upper castes.
Kanshi Ram did not live to see that
day. Generations more will come and
go before we get even an inch closer to
that situation. n
With contribution from Trithesh Nandan

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