Review selection process as doctors, engineers joining civil services: Parliamentary panel

Two in every three civil servants chosen after a three-tier exam between 2011 and 2020 were either an engineer or a doctor, a Parliamentary panel has said lamenting that the country is losing out on those who could have become “good doctors and engineers”.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by senior BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said the “allurement” to become a civil servant is “perhaps also adversely affecting” other fields of working.

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It is “high time to have a rethink about the whole process” of recruitment for the Civil Services, the report ‘Review Of Functioning Of Recruitment Organisations Of Government Of India’ tabled in Parliament recently said.

According to data presented in the report, 5,880 or 55.06% of the total 10,679 civil servants selected between 2011 and 2020 had engineering background while 1,130 or 10.58% had medical background. Altogether, 7,010 or 65.64% of the total had engineering or medical background.

“It is quite evident… the maximum number of officers recruited are from technical and medical backgrounds. Above 70% of the recruits in the civil service by UPSC nowadays are from technical streams. Every year, hundreds of technocrats are thus being lost, who are likely to work in other specific areas which is also a requirement for the nation,” the report said.

“So doctors and top technocrats are being lost who can perform as very good doctors and engineers,” it added.

The data showed only 2,835 or 26.54% are from humanities background while the rest 834 or 7.8% are from other backgrounds.

The analysis of data showed there were 1001 candidates chosen in 2011 while it rose to 1,363 in 2013 and then declined to 812 in 2018. The UPSC chose 833 candidates in 2020.

When it comes to those with engineering background, the highest recruitment was 717 in 2016, which was 59% of 1,209 candidates chosen for civil services. If one takes proportion, 2017 had 66% or 699 candidates were engineers out of 1,056 candidates chosen as civil servants. The lowest was in 2012 when only 408 or 37% of 1,091 were engineers.

The highest number of doctors or those with medical background were recruited to civil services in 2014 when 183 (13%) candidates out of 1,363 were chosen. The lowest was in 2020 when 33 (4%) were chosen to serve the bureaucracy.