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Nothing Civil about the Civil Services

In a blatant display of discrimination and insensitivity, meritorious and eligible Indian citizens are routinely being denied employment opportunities with the Indian Civil Services. The reason: disability.

Background

On a visit to Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in October 2003 as faculty for disability instruction to the Group A Officers selected for Civil Services, Javed Abidi chanced to meet Rigzian and Lokesh, trainees for the Indian Information Service cadre. From them, he learnt of the discrimination that they had faced due to their disability.

After returning to Delhi, he alerted the NCPEDP team, who researched the matter and discovered that there were many more instances of similar discrimination that had occurred in the past few years. But the most disheartening fact was that these cases had occurred after the Disability Act of 1995 came into effect.

Candidates with disability and the IAS

If we examine the history behind the discriminatory attitudes in the Civil Service Recruitment Process, we come across the Disability Act of 1995. The Act provides for reservation to disabled people in the ‘identified jobs’. However, even six years after the Act was passed, identification of jobs is an area that remains neglected, depriving deserving candidates from rightful employment opportunities on the grounds of their disability.

When this fact was brought to the Supreme Court’s notice, it intervened in 2001 and directed the concerned government agencies to carry out identification of jobs at the earliest. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment then drew up a job list. Unfortunately, barring a few categories, most possible employment options were left out of this list. Of the 26 Civil Services cadres, only five were identified for reserved vacancies for disabled people, in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ categories. Of these, not a single service has been identified for visually impaired persons.

Unfair treatment being meted out to the visually impaired candidates

For more than a decade now, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has been conducting Civil Services Examination in Braille. Writers & Scribes, as well as extra time are provided to candidates with low vision/visual impairment. Special centers are set up to facilitate them to take their examination. The number of such special centers has been increased from one exam center in New Delhi to six across the country. After ensuring a level field to enable a visually impaired person to take the examination and appear for the interview, what happens to the successful candidates? Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) promptly denies her/him placement in any of the Civil Services on the grounds of visual impairment!

If the Government of India thinks that a person with visual impairment/low vision is unfit to be a Civil Servant, then why are these candidates put through the tough grind of these extremely competitive exams in the first place? Why give false hopes that will never be realized? What use are dreams that will never see the light of the day, no matter how hard you try.

In an irony of sorts, while there have been many inclusions of disabled people in the IAS even before 2001, current rules deny job opportunity to deserving candidates on the basis of their disability. Forced to seek employment through categories reserved for the physically challenged, these candidates then discover that there might not be a vacancy for them, or worse… they may not be even eligible to avail this facility.

NCPEDP protests

The first thing that NCPEDP noticed while studying the issue was that while there were many serving officers with disability in the Indian Administrative Service, somehow, a reversal of policy had taken place after the Disability Act of 1995 came into force. Especially after the “identification of Services” done in 2001.

The Disability Act 1995 is a legal instrument that was devised to ensure an extra advantage or ‘positively discriminate’ in order to ensure a level playing field for the disabled people vis-à-vis non-disabled candidates.
Unfortunately, DoPT is using it to deny employment opportunities to deserving candidates.
To better understand this anomaly, the NCPEDP team began its campaign by compiling a list of all serving officers with disability. It also documented the efforts of UPSC, which is the exam conducting body and conflicting decisions of DoPT.

UPSC and DoPT: Conflicting Roles of two parallel Government Agencies

Here is a classic example of how one arm of the government does not know what the other arm is doing!

One arm of the Government, UPSC, (the examining body for Civil Services exams) provides all the facilities for disabled people to write their exams. E.g., candidates with orthopedic disability are allotted disabled friendly exam centers. Scribes are provided and extra time is given to people with visual impairment.

DoPT, the other arm, which is responsible for recruitment, uses disability as the reason to reject meritorious candidates wishing to enter the Civil Services.

Disability activists need to campaign for bringing synergy between these agencies.

Then, armed with facts and figures, NCPEDP made a representation to Shri L. K. Advani, the Deputy Prime Minister (who is also in-charge of Home Ministry, under which DoPT functions), on December 12, 2003.

This was accompanied by a simultaneous release of information to the media to bring this issue in the public focus. At the same time, NGOs across the country were informed and asked to react to this unethical treatment meted out to people with disability.

An activist’s point of view

NCPEDP does not advocate that all persons with disability have the merit to join the Indian Administrative Service. But the case studies that we have taken up are of candidates who have cleared the examination entirely on their own merit. The fact that they have secured high ranks testifies to their capabilities. Should they then be denied employment just for being disabled? And why should candidates who are not keen on using the disability quota, be forced into it?

NCPEDP recommends that the exercise of ‘Identifying Services’ be done in a scientific manner, involving experts representing different disabilities. It imperative for that DoPT understands that disability ranges from mild to severe. This fact should be kept in focus before debarring a candidate from a career option. We strongly opposes the fact that,

• 21 Services out of 26 Civil Services are barred for orthopaedically impaired people
• 23 out of 26 Civil Services are barred for people with hearing impairment
• All the 26 Services are barred for visually impaired people

Also, synergy between the examination and recruitment policies of UPSC and DoPT is a must. These two agencies have diametrically differing views on disabled candidates. However, being a part of the same government, they MUST unify the examination process and the subsequent recruitment to promote merit, disability not a bar.

In an extension to this argument, Ravi Arora, who is ranked 325th in the Civil Services exams, would like to know why facilities such as, scribes and extra time are allowed for candidates with visual disability, if their disability bars them from the Civil Services altogether.

Our demands

• Reinstate Rigzian Sampheal and Lokesh Kumar in the Indian Administrative Service, which they rightfully deserve.
• Allot Indian Revenue Service to Satish, which he had qualified for
• Review Ravi Arora’s case, who had qualified earlier and allot him and allot him the appropriate service
• Review Manoj Sadasivan’s case who had also qualified but denied placement on account of his hearing impairment
• Formulate a clear-cut non-discriminatory policy with the support of disability experts for recruitment of disabled people in the civil services.

Need for introspection

It is time that the disability sector questioned itself, how we could allow these brilliant people to be subjected to such discrimination? Why is the disability sector, especially large organisations working for visually impaired people, sitting quietly all these years allowing such blatant discrimination to happen to its own people. Why is it that time and again the Chief Commissioner for Person with Disability (CCPD) is found to be inadequate in promoting and safeguarding the rights of disabled people? When CCPD has the power to move the civil court to protect the rights of the disabled people, why has it not reacted to the reports and issued suo motto notice to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)?

Will we allow the promising futures of those brilliant young men and women with disability to go waste? Will we be able to ensure a smooth road for disabled candidates aspiring to join the civil services via exams?

Our achievement

In a landmark order, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has opened the higher civil services of the country – ‘non-technical’ Group A and Group B services – to physically disabled people. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), an order has been issued to reserve 3 per cent seats for the Civil Service Examination (CSE) of 2005-06.

The first person to benefit from this order has been M. Satish, a physically disabled candidate belonging to a Scheduled Caste, who had qualified in the Civil Services Examination, 2002, for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Dr. Manmohan Singh has approved his appointment. Satish had made a representation to the Government of India in September 2003 stating that while he had been ranked 249 in the CSE 2002, and had qualified for IRS, he had not been allocated any post/service because of his physical disability.

The Government had failed at that time to take any action. On October 13, 2004, Satish represented once again to the Prime Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh ordered an immediate enquiry into the case and, after due examination of the case, the Government of India has now cleared his immediate allocation to the Indian Revenue Service. He has been directed to join the training course already in progress. The Department of Revenue has been directed to identify a suitable post for him before the completion of his training course.

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