While the National Career Service Portal has already registered more than 143 million unemployed, the backlog in reserved vacancies meant for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in Union ministries and departments is baffling. This backlog is institutionally widespread.
Union ministries, their departments, autonomous bodies, institutes of national importance, universities, and affiliated colleges - all have backlog reserved vacancies. Therefore, when the country faces a massive unemployment challenge, this puzzle of backlog reserved vacancies needs urgent attention.
Government records presented in Parliament on March 24, 2022, tell the sorry state of the backlog in filling reserved vacancies in nine ministries and departments, including Railways, Finance Ministry's Department of Revenue and Department of Financial Services, Department of Posts, Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of Defence and its Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.
As of January 1, 2021, these nine ministries and departments had 82,022 vacancies reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Out of these total vacancies, 19971 were reserved for the SCs, 22757 for the STs and 29294 for the OBCs. Parliament was informed that of 82,022 vacancies, only 34045 seats or 42 per cent of the vacant seats, were filled.
The percentage of filling of backlog reserved vacancies by these nine ministries and departments also presents a compelling picture. The Department of Defence Production filled over 80 per cent of vacancies against the reserved backlog. The Ministry of Railway, which had a backlog of reserved seats totalling 22130, could fill only 52 per cent of the backlog. The Ministry of Home Affairs filled less than 14 per cent of the total 16527 backlog reserved vacancies. The same is the story for the Ministry of Finance, Department of Atomic Energy, and Department of Posts. The Ministry of Defence fared the worst by filling only 165 of the total 7023 backlog reserved vacancies, just over 2 per cent of the total backlog reserved vacancies.
Universities and Institutes of Excellence, which should have been the champions of diversity, and inclusion of the SCs, STs and OBCs in the academia, continue to resist and exclude these historically oppressed and excluded communities. Parliament was informed that none of the central universities filled the desired reserved seats. Forty-five central universities had sanctioned reserved post strength of 5737 SCs, 3097 STs and 7815 seats for OBCs. These universities could only fill 58 per cent of SC, 61 per cent of ST and 46 per cent of OBC reserved category posts. The Indian Institute of Science filled only 20 per cent of the sanctioned reserved seats for the SCs, leaving an 80 per cent backlog.
Many reasons could be assigned to the government's failure to fill the backlog of reserved posts at the time of massive unemployment. One of the possible reasons is the inherent composition of the Indian bureaucracy, which, even after 74 years of independence, has more than 63 per cent of General category employees. The bureaucracy has its vested interest in not filling backlog reserved vacancies. Other reasons for this could be the ruling party's known opposition to caste-based reservations and consistently advocating economic criteria for the reservations. This has emboldened the entrenched caste groups in the government, and they are now overzealous in preventing the implementation of the inclusive agenda in recruitment. Otherwise, when a massive talent pool vies for employment in the government, why does the government fail to fill a few thousand seats?
In addition, privatisation of public sector organisations and out-sourcing of employment opportunities have adversely impacted the strength of the Associations of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the government, which have fought relentlessly for the implementation of reservation policies in the government.
After examining the Demands for Grants of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for the financial year 2022-23, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Department on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its 112th Report to the Rajya Sabha, noted, "At present, there is no single nodal agency in the Central Government to monitor backlog reserved vacancies in various Ministries/Departments." The committee asked the government to designate the "Department of Personnel and Training" as the nodal agency for monitoring the backlog of reserved vacancies.
The committee also asked the DoPT to create a dashboard on its website and update the same regarding the reserved vacancies when these are made available by the concerned ministries/departments. Earlier in its 106th and 108th reports, the committee had asked concerned ministries and departments to create a dashboard on their sites showing the details of backlog reserved vacancies and progress made in filling them up.
The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and the Scheduled Tribes have asked for a comprehensive law on reservations to guarantee population proportionate inclusion of the SCs and STs in all government departments and institutions. The UPA government introduced a bill on reservations in the Rajya Sabha in 2008. However, it has not been introduced in the Lok Sabha so far. We hope this government will listen.
(Ashok Bharti is Chairman, National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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