India is complex and so are the expectations of your civil service. To evaluate its Civil Service Day (April 21, the challenges that India faced as a nation on August 15, 1947 must take into account.
With indicators of abysmal human development, large -scale poverty, indigence, communal conflicts, fusipara tendencies and a nascent democratic experiment in a hierarchical society, it was a difficult task.
The unconditional support of civil services suppliers in the drafting of the Indian Constitution, managed the transfer of power and integration of the princely states, worked to create the first electoral roll for the suffrage of universal adults, established the community development of the harmony of the party, the Sigaly foliary re -staircered at a scale without accreditation.
His dedication and hard work created expectations of civil service.
Constitutional provisions
Chapter – I, Part IV of the Constitution of India These are services under union and states. Explain the recruitment and conditions of service, possession, dismissal, elimination or reduction in the range of people, all the services of India and the constitutional protection granted to them.
Very few constitutions in the world provide protection of public officials for independent functioning.
Sardar Patel imagined civil service as the “steel frame” of India, emphasizing his critical role in governance and national unity, and emphasized the importance of integrity, impartiality and a spirit of service. He asked young public officials to “provide their service without fear or favor and without any expectation of strange rewards.”
In 2022, a document from the Observer Research Foundation examined the contribution of the civil service. While it lists many positive contributions, he acknowledged that the civil service seems to be “hesitant to satisfy the aspirations of a resurgistic India. There is a broad extension of the criticism that the civil service is elitist, selfish, slow and painful. It operates under a defective system of incentives and penalties and the officers work without pressure to perform ‘.
Evaluate civil service
A fair evaluation must support the following points:
First, the civil service remains the aspirational dream of a lot of good students and the selection process based on merit has resisted the test of time. Bright students, although, of course, at a higher average age, of several social background, join civil services. In that sense, we have a more representative civil service due to positive discrimination in education and employment.
Second, the results, they thought modest compared to many developed countries such as China, South Korea, Singapore and emerging Vietnam, there has been faster progress in the last three decades.
The negligence of primary education and primary health in the first four decades of India’s independence committed our ability to grow as many Asian classmates. While some achieve social participation for schooling, skills and health have happened, we are still largely in quality results, compromising our ability to grow in two digits.
Frequent transfers or officials in social sectors where the results take time, also seems to contribute to unsatisfactory results. Attention to the elaboration of credible public systems for the results in the public goods sectors has not received adequate attention in the reforms.
1991 reforms
Third, the 1991 civil service directed economic liberalization has been a climax on a trip of democratic nations to expand the rates of economic progress. The participation of the private sector in all sectors, the dismantling of the License-Quota Raj, has led to faster progress.
There are even challenges now to improve the ease of doing business, since dismantling the cumbersome obstacles to faster economic progress they continue to need more attention.
If the human development and the opening of the economy for the private sector had happened a few decades ago in China, perhaps our current scenario would have a very different bone. If government schools were as well equipped as those of South Korea in the years of formation, we would have a much higher bone in per capita income.
Primordial loyalties
Fourth, the deepening of democracy in India has been committed by persistent primary loyalties of caste and religion. Although the civil service has been fundamental to maintain the unity of India, it has failed to make human well -being triumph in the factors that compromise the search for well -being. Limited efforts towards decentralized community action through responsible local governments have compromised governance in the last mile.
In a democratic nation, it is difficult to assign all failures to bureaucracy, since political formations that are not deviation of adopting gifts for votes should often hire. The tendency sometimes, in the states and in the center to make officials agree, conflicts with their constitutional role in defending improved values in the constitution of India. We need an enabling environment where public officials can really play the role provided by the Constitution and Sardar Pateel.
Fifth, there is an increase in corruption levels throughout society and civil services also have their black sheep. Dysmasion must be stronger since no developing nation offers a committed civil service.
As a jury member selecting the young district magistrates for government awards in the last three years and training young officials in the last three decades, I have met the exceptionally committed young officials who make a difference. It is humiliating to see his work in the field.
The constitutional official needs a qualifying environment that gives him confidence to advise the political executive based on the evidence. Older officials should give confidence to their subordinates that the right path is the constitutional path, the correct action is what Sardar Patel expected public officials to do.
The writer is a senior member, center of social and economic progress. The opinions expressed are personal
Posted on April 17, 2025
