Government Jobs and Schemes

1. Introduction

Over 387 million people were employed in different sectors of the Indian economy in 2004-05. Chapter 5 analysed the structure and patterns of employment with a focus on Muslim workers. It was observed that the presence of Muslim workers in the most preferred organized sector of employment was very limited. According to the Economic Survey 2005-06, about 27 million persons were employed in the organized sector. Of these, about 18.6 million persons were employed by government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs), a share of 70%, while the remaining workers were employed in the organized private sector. In India, government/public sector employment is still the preferred employment for most people due to a variety of reasons. Apart from having a long term regular income and retirement benefits providing economic security, the higher positions in government jobs offer the employee privileged positions in society through ascribed and sometimes assumed status; they are also accorded status and protocol privileges as representatives of the government. These features render government jobs attractive. The perquisite of an official residence or housing is another reason for choosing government employment. Although there has been a reduction in the size of public employment over the past decade or more, the charm of such employment has not lessened. In a pluralistic society a reasonable representation of various communities in government sector employment is necessary to enhance participatory governance.

Central and State governments in India implement a wide variety of programmes to facilitate the economic development of vulnerable groups and to provide them social security. There is also a generic principle to help those who are identified as below the poverty line. This chapter analyses the participation of Muslims in various national and state level government departments, agencies and programmes in a comparative perspective.

The analysis is mainly based on the data provided by Central and State governments and their agencies. States were requested to collect and collate data on employment and beneficiary programmes in several specified pro formas. While data on government employment in different States was relatively easy to collect, information on beneficiary programmes was difficult to get in the format needed by the Committee. This is primarily because such data are not often maintained in these formats. In addition, data from 129 Universities and 84 Colleges and 154 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) were also collected and are analysed below. A number of published lists, statements and directories consisting of the names of the officials were also scanned and analysed.

2. Participation of Muslims in Government Employment

Adequate participation of different SRCs in both the decision making processes and in the provision of services that involve mass contact is desirable.

While secondary data from the Census and NSSO analysed in Chapter 5 provided a macro picture of Muslim participation in government jobs, primary data collected from the Central and State governments helps us generate some micro insights. It is noteworthy that the Committee had access to data for more than 10.1 million employees. Even after excluding the data collected from private sector banks and the universities, the Committee had access to data from a large segment of the government sector.

In all, data pertaining to 88 lakh employees was received by the Committee from different government departments, agencies and institutions; of which only 4.4 lakhs or 5% are reported to be Muslims. Information on 1.4 million PSU workers shows that Muslims constituted only 3.3% of Central PSUs and 10.8% of the State level PSUs from which data was received.

National Level Employment
Employment in Civil Services

The civil lists available for the key services, namely the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service for the year 2006 were analysed to find out the share of Muslims. This was undertaken by identifying the religion of a government employee by her name and only in 10 cases out of the total 8,827 entries was it not possible to ascertain the religion of the employee. The presence of Muslims was found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS. Moreover, Muslims who have secured high level appointments could do it mostly as ‘promoted candidates’; their share as direct recruits through competitive examinations is low at 2.4%, 1.9% and 2.3% respectively.

UPSC Recruitments during 2003 and 2004

Data for two years, 2003 and 2004, was provided by the Union Public Service Commission. Overall, Muslims constituted only 4.9% of candidates who appeared in the written examination of Civil Services in the years 2003 and 2004; this is far below the 13.4% share of Muslims in the population. However, the success rate of Muslims is about the same as other candidates. While the small number of Muslim candidates appearing in the written examination of the Civil Services is a cause for concern, similar success rates are reassuring. There is a need to improve Muslim participation in the UPSC competitive selection process.

Employees in Select Central Government Departments

Muslims’ shares in employment in various departments are abysmally low at all levels. The share of Muslims increases only marginally for lower level jobs but even in group ‘D’ employment (which requires only a low level of education), the share is only about 5%. Their share in this category of jobs is even less in Central PSUs. Across categories, Group ‘C’ has the largest number of employees and officers who normally establish mass contact during the course of employment are generally from this category. Muslim presence at this level is less than 5% and even lower (2.5%) in public sector banks.

A comparison of Muslim shares in government jobs at different levels with their share in the population provides an estimate of their under-representation. One can see that the deficit exists in all departments and at all levels but is particularly high at the higher levels in PSUs and Banks. While the overall employment deficit is large across departments, Muslims tend to get absorbed to a limited extent in lower positions of Group C and D. Compared to other departments, Muslims are better represented in the University jobs. The best level of representation is found in non-teaching jobs in universities, followed by Group D jobs in the Railways and Postal department.

Indian Railways: Indian Railways employs about 14 lakh people. Of these only 64,000 employees belong to the Muslim community, a representation of only 4.5%. Besides, almost all (98.7%) Muslim railway employees are positioned at lower levels; with only 1.3% employed as Group ‘A’ or Group ‘B’ officers. In the Group A category, ‘Other Hindu’ (includes H-General and H-OBCs) group holds 72% positions followed by SCs/STs at 18%. Muslims have a meagre 3% share at this level. In lower level positions the share of Muslims is somewhat higher at 5%, whereas the share of Other Hindus is lower at 65%.

National Security Agencies: India has about 19 lakh employees in various security agencies including the three wings of the defence forces. However, details of the levels of positions of SRCs are available only for 5.2 lakh employees belonging to the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal. The share of Muslims even in these security agencies is as low as 3.6% at the higher and 4.6% at the lower levels/categories of employment. Taking all agencies together, practically all Muslim (96%) employees are positioned at the lower levels, especially in Group C, with only about 2% as Group ‘A’ or Group ‘B’ officers. Excepting Group D, which has only 4% of all jobs in security agencies, in which SCs/STs have a 37% presence, all other positions are dominated by the Other Hindu (includes H-General and H-OBCs) category. One also finds that about 11% of Group A jobs are held by those belonging to minorities other than the Muslims.

Post and Telegraphs: The Postal Department has about 2.75 lakh employees amongst whom the share of the Muslim community is only 5%. The Indian Postal Department has a good representation of Hindu-UC workers followed by SCs/STs. The shares of Muslims and OBCs in this department are far below their population shares. Like other departments, the Postal Department, too, shows that Muslims are represented more in lower level positions than higher level positions. The maximum share of Muslims is in Group D whereas their share in Group A is just 3.8%.

Employment in Universities: According to the data received by the Committee from 129 Universities and 84 Colleges there are 1.37 lakh employees of which about 42% are in the teaching segment and the remaining 58% constitute non-teaching staff. It is evident from the data that both the segments are dominated by H-Gen employees with a share nearly twice their population share. All other minorities which constitute about 6% of the population also showed good representation in university employment. Among the teaching faculty, OBCs have a good representation, more than their population share. Only Muslims and SCs/STs are under-represented in university employment. Muslims are just 3.7% in the teaching faculty and 5.4% in non-teaching staff and SCs/STs are 7.4% in teaching and 16.9% in non-teaching staff; the population shares of the two SRC’s are 13.4 and 25.2 percent respectively.

Employment in Public Sector Banks: The data received by the Committee from the RBI, Scheduled Commercial Banks, NABARD and SIDBI shows that there are 6.8 lakh employees, about 32% at higher level positions (‘A’ and ‘B’ category) and 68% at lower level positions (‘C’ and ‘D’ categories). The representation of Muslims is very low at 2.2% in bank employment overall, just 1.7% at higher levels and 2.5% at lower level positions.

At the State level, the representation of Muslims in bank employment is more than 5%. However, the highest representation of Muslims is in Jammu & Kashmir (18.1%) followed by Assam (6.5%) and Andhra Pradesh (5.6%). But if we compare these shares with their population shares in the State population we find that Muslim representation is 3.6 percentage points less in Andhra Pradesh, 24.3 percentage points less in Assam and 48.9 percentage points less in Jammu & Kashmir, compared to their population shares. Similarly, available estimates suggest that the number of Muslim employees in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is 150 out of nearly 19,000 employees (less than 1%).

Central Public Sector Undertakings: Information was received by the Committee from 154 Central PSUs which employ about 6.88 lakh people. Of these 28.7% were employed in higher managerial positions, 14.2% in managerial and the remaining 57.1% in lower level positions or as workers. Muslims have an abysmal representation at all levels of central PSU employment. For example, they are only 2.3% in higher managerial and 2.8% in middle managerial positions. Amongst other workers they constitute only 3.9%. Compared with Muslims other minorities, who have a meagre share in the population, have as high as 25% share in managerial positions and close to 30% share amongst the workers. The ‘Other Hindus’ category has a substantially larger presence in managerial positions, and the SCs/STs have a reasonable share in the ‘other workers’ category.

2.2 State Level Employment

The Committee had requested the States to furnish employment data for all their departments and PSUs; only 12 states responded with some data, still fewer gave complete information. West Bengal failed to provide data in a usable format; while the data on the number of Muslim workers was made available, the absence of information on total workers and employment of other SRCs did not allow meaningful analysis. In the case of Bihar it was not possible to get data as the State Departments did not make sufficient efforts to get the same.

In all, information on 4.4 million employees from different Departments of State governments was made available to the Committee. Complete data was received from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Bihar supplied data pertaining to only about 75,000 employees, Jharkhand for 15,000, Assam only for 81,000. West Bengal supplied data pertaining to about 1.35 lakh employees and Uttar Pradesh for a meagre 1.34 lakh employees. From the total information received from the States, about three lakh Muslim employees were found to be working in State service - this works out to about one half of their aggregated population share in these states.

In no State does the representation of Muslims match their population share. Instead, they are falling far behind their population shares. Andhra Pradesh is the only State where the representation of Muslims is fairly close to, but still less than their population share. Three other States which show Muslim representation in government jobs as more than 50% of their population shares are Karnataka (70%), Gujarat (59%) and Tamil Nadu (57%). All other States show the representation of Muslims as less than half of their population share.

In general, one finds that the share of Muslims is relatively higher in lower level positions; only in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu presence of Muslims in higher level positions is more than their representation in lower level positions. The highest difference in the representation of Muslims between higher and lower positions is recorded in Karnataka where Muslims in higher level positions were 4.9% but at lower level positions their share was 8.9%. The other State where this difference is substantial is Jharkhand with 3.8% and 7.2% Muslim representation in higher and lower level positions respectively. Further, one notices that in most States, Muslims are employed more as Group B officers than as Group A officers. Only West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Bihar and Jharkhand have reported Group A Muslim officers to be proportionately more than Group B officers. In the case of lower positions about 5.9% workers in Group C are Muslim compared to 5.1% in Group D positions.

Muslim Representation in Selected State Departments

A summary of the presence of Muslims in selected State level government departments, suggests that the Home Departments have the highest presence of Muslims compared to any other Department of the state Government and yet the overall share was only 7.3% followed by 6.5% in the Education and Transport Department, 4.4% in Health and 6.0% in Other Departments. All the above shares in employment are very low compared with the share of Muslim population in respective states. The data received by the Committee is summarized here but it is desirable to collect more detailed information and to review the presence of Muslims in different departments.

Education Department: The data received by the Committee from 8 States reveals that the representation of Muslims in the Education Department is just 6.5%, which is nearly half their population share. Only in three States, Kerala (12.3%), Bihar (12.3%) and Karnataka (11.9%) Muslim representation is more than 10%. Karnataka is the only State that shows representation (11.9%) of Muslims in the Education Department close to their population share of 12.2%. In the case of Bihar, the Muslim population is 16.5% and their representation in the Education Department is 12.3%. Similarly, the representation of Muslims in the Education Department of Kerala is nearly half of their population share of 24.7%.

Muslim employment in Education Departments is mostly at lower positions. Only in the case of Bihar, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Muslims’ representation in the higher positions is better than their representation in the lower positions. Among the high Muslim concentration States, most of the Muslims in the Lower Position category are working in Group D rather than Group C positions.

Home Department: The Committee received information from 12 States regarding the Muslim representation in the Home Departments. Surprisingly, the total number of employees reported by Uttar Pradesh is only 1,344, Jharkhand 728, Tamil Nadu 2,637 and West Bengal 5,690. However, as per the data received by the Committee among all major departments, the Home Department has the highest Muslim representation of 7.3%. The States reporting Muslim representation of more than 10% are Andhra Pradesh at 14.6%, Assam 11.3% and Kerala 10.7%. Andhra Pradesh is the only State that shows a representation of Muslims in the Home Department more than their population share; all other states have huge deficits in the presence of Muslims in their police forces.

It appears that Muslims working in Home Departments have a better share in higher level than in the lower level positions, however, there are more Muslims among Group B officers than Group A level officers. Amongst lower level positions, most Muslims work as Group C workers in all states, except in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra where Group D Muslim workers are more than Group C workers. Ninety-five percent of the Group C employees are police constables, and overall the share of Muslims as police constables is only about 6 percent.

Health Department: Data on a total of 4.02 lakh Health Department employees was received from 12 States, including Assam, Karnataka, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The representation of Muslims in the Health Department is just about 4.4% that is far below their population share. Only in two states, Kerala (10.5%) and Assam (10.8%), the representation of Muslims is more than 10%, but compared to their population share these shares too are low. Relatively speaking Muslim representation is somewhat better at higher level of employment, especially at the Group B level.

Transport Department: Nine States in all provided data for the Transport Department covering a total of 2.11 lakh employees. Kerala, Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu provided complete data. The representation of Muslims in the Transport Department is just 6.5%, which is almost half of their population share. Out of a total of 9 States, 4 show the representation of Muslims in this department as more than 10%, Gujarat 16.3%, Assam 11.8%, Bihar 10.9% and Andhra Pradesh 10.0%. Relatively speaking, Muslim representation in lower level positions (Groups C and D) is better than at the higher levels where they constitute only 1.6% of the employees. Only in the case of Kerala, Assam, Karnataka and Delhi is Muslim representation in the higher level positions better than in lower level positions. Transport is the only Department where one can find that the Muslim’s representation in the Group D is close to their population share.

Other Departments: A total of 16.6 lakh employee data from 12 States for all other Departments showed the presence of Muslims at 6.0%. Data from West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar, Assam and Jharkhand was not complete. Out of a total of 12 States which provided data only in two States was the representation of Muslims in the residual-other departments more than 10% - Kerala 10.2% and Assam 11.7% - still much lower than their population share.

Share of Muslim Employees in Judiciary: In Judiciary, the recruitment procedures are considered quite fair.

(For example, for recruiting subordinate judiciary the State Public Service Commission first holds a written examination. It is open to everyone with the laid down qualifications, the eligibility being a degree in law. There are minimum marks for clearing the examination and anyone who clears it is eligible for the interview. The number of people called for the interview depends upon the vacancies to be filled up. The selection is made by the Selection Committee presided over by a High Court Judge. It also includes a representative of the State Public Service Commission. The examination, like the other examinations held by UPSC, is open to everyone. The only fixed quota for selection is for SCs/STs. For all other SRCs, the selection depends upon obtaining the requisite marks in the examination plus the performance at the interview. Then, depending upon the number of vacancies, candidates are called for interview and the selection is made. The identity of the candidate, while the written examination is evaluated, is confidential. Prima facie, therefore, the question of any bias towards any community is ruled out.)

Yet the presence and participation of Muslims in the Judiciary has been a major point of concern.

The Committee received data from 15 States adding up to a lakh of employees at various levels. This information is available according to SRCs as well.

Overall, Muslim representation in the Judiciary is about 7.8%; the OBCs constitute about 23%, and the SCs/STs about 20%. The H-General category is over-represented in the Judiciary with almost twice their share in the population and constituting nearly one half of all employed in the Judiciary. The presence of Muslims, relatively more at lower level positions, is yet not commensurate with their share in the population. The presence of Muslims at higher level judicial positions such as sessions judges and so on is nominal.

Overall, the representation of Muslims in different State departments for which data was available need to be improved. While proportionate representation in different segments of government is not being suggested, there is a need to ensure a significant presence especially in those departments of government that have mass contact on a day to day basis or are involved in sensitive tasks. These include departments like home (especially the police force), health and education.

Recent Recruitments at the State Level

The Committee has received data for the last five years on recruitment through Public Service Commissions from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh.

It is evident from the data that the representation of H-General category is significantly higher than their share in the population in all the categories of employment except Group D workers. The share of Hindu-OBCs is quite close to their population share in the lower level positions but about 8 percentage points less than their population share in higher level positions. The representation of Muslims and SCs/STs is much lower than their respective population shares. Muslims, however, are represented relatively more in higher level positions than in Group C and Group D positions, where a larger number of people are employed. The representation of SCs/STs in higher level positions is just about 4% but their share in Group D employment is large. The share of Muslims in all recruitments by State Public Commissions is about 2.1% whereas their share in the population is about 12.4% in the States that provided the Committee with data. This shows a deficit of about 83% in recruitment.

The Committee received complete information regarding candidates called for interview from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh. An analysis suggests that Hindu-Gen once again dominate among those called for interviews in all the categories and their shares are considerably larger than their population share. It is observed that the Muslims’ share of interviewees is slightly close to their share in the population as far as Group A positions is concerned. While the share of Muslims called for interviews for Group D positions was very high at about 18%, their share in actual recruitment was only 1.1% in the states from which Committee had received information both on candidates called for the interview and candidates selected. Data suggest that the SCs/STs mostly appear for lower positions and while OBCs have an even share in those called for Group D jobs, in all others they have a lower proportion.

State Public Sector Undertakings

The Committee received data on 7.6 lakh employees of State PSUs from only 10 States. The data received by the Committee shows that out of 7.6 lakh employees the Muslim share is 10.7%, which is quite decent though still less than their population share of 14.8%. Overall, the data shows a deficit of about 28% in PSU employment. Muslims are better represented in the States of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where their representation exceeds their population share of 9.1% and 9.2% respectively. Gujarat shows the highest representation of Muslims at about 16% followed by Andhra Pradesh with 12%. In Kerala the share of Muslims, though high at 10.8%, is much lower than their population share. However, most Muslims in Gujarat and Kerala get jobs in lower level positions compared to higher positions in State PSUs.

3. Programmes

As was seen in Chapter 8, about 38% of Muslims in urban areas and 27% in rural areas live below the poverty level. Many more are close to the poverty level. This reduces the credit worthiness of such households and makes it difficult for them to access credit from banks and similar financial institutions. Given this status of the Muslim community, assistance from Government programmes is critical for improving the welfare levels of the poor amongst them, particularly women and children. Several programmes are implemented in India to facilitate economic growth as well as to provide social safety nets for vulnerable sections. For example, besides education and health schemes, there are programmes to improve rural incomes through agriculture, irrigation and land distribution. Similarly the Public Distribution System, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and Midday Meals Schemes are also meant to help the poor. There are also scholarship schemes for girls, social security/pensions and so on. While most of these programmes are meant to help the poor, they often focus on specific occupations, regions and asset generation. Further, given the economic vulnerability and unique socio-cultural requirements of Muslims/minorities, targeted programmes are also in place. For example, institutions catering to the needs of Muslims/minorities and OBCs such as the National Minority Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation (NBCFDC) have been established. It is important to know whether Muslims are getting adequate benefits from these programmes and specialised institutions.

Ø While Muslims constitute 30.7% of the poor (BPL) in Kerala, their share under various Government programmes ranges between 5% and 18%, except in programmes like Cooperative Credit (25%), National Tuberculosis Control Programme (28%) and National Programme for Control of Blindness (21%). The share of Muslims is less than 12% in the schemes implemented by Rural Development and Housing Departments.

Ø The share of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, who constitute about 23.6% of the poor, is also unsatisfactory. It ranges between 3% and 14%, with the exception of programmes like Swarna Jayanati Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) and Small Scale Industries in which Muslims’ share is over 16%. The share of Muslims is less than 10% in the schemes implemented by Agriculture and Cooperation Departments.

Ø In Karnataka one fifth of the poor are Muslims. The share of Muslims is satisfactory in SJSRY (over 15%) and in establishment of SSI (11%). The remaining schemes, however, have not covered Muslims adequately. Even in a successful programme like Yeshasvini, the share of Muslims is inadequate.

Ø In Maharashtra, where Muslims constitute 16.4% of the poor, the share of Muslims is good in schemes like SJSRY, NSAP and Handloom & Textile Department schemes. However, there is need to target Muslims more effectively in the remaining schemes as their share is 8% or even lower.

Ø Muslims constitute about 9.7% of the poor population in Gujarat. The share of Muslims in most schemes is below this figure. Their share is satisfactory only in SJSRY and NSAP schemes.

Ø In Tamil Nadu Muslims constitute about 4.1% of the poor population. The share of Muslims has been satisfactory only in the schemes of Cooperation and Health Departments.

In the States that submitted data to the Committee the overall coverage of Muslims is unsatisfactory. The virtual absence of representation of Muslims among nurses was noted. Only SJSRY, Cooperative Credit and NSAP schemes have covered Muslims adequately. It is also interesting to note that, contrary to popular perception, the participation of Muslims in Family Planning programmes has been encouraging.

4 Concluding Observations

A detailed analysis of Muslim presence in government employment highlighted the same pattern that was observed in Chapter 5. A very small proportion of government/public sector employees are Muslims and on average they are concentrated in lower level positions. This is consistent with the finding above that the average earnings of Muslim regular employees are lower than those of employees belonging to other SRCs. While no discrimination is being alleged, it may be desirable to have minority persons on relevant interview panels. This can be done on the lines of SC/ST participation in panels. Although efforts were made to ensure the presence of Muslims on the selection committees for Group C and Group D, the results were not made available to the Committee.

A brief review of programmes suggests that Muslims have not benefited much from them. At times Muslims do not have adequate participation as beneficiaries and at others, when participation is adequate, the total amounts involved in the programme are too low to make a meaningful impact. The current formats in which the data are kept do not permit easy assessment of the benefits that have accrued to various SRCs. There is also a lack of transparency in the assessment and monitoring of the programmes. Apart from collecting appropriate data for evaluation purposes, there is a need to sensitize the state bureaucracy at all levels to include Muslims in the different programmes.

While it is difficult to identify all the causes, one of the reasons for the low efficacy of these programmes is lack of Muslim participation in political processes and governance, especially at the local level. Muslims’ participation in nearly all public spaces is low. Enhancement of their democratic participation and role in policy making is important. This would facilitate their meaningful and active participation in the development process. Democratic participation is one of the cherished aims of a parliamentary democracy that is expected to provide opportunities for all communities. In India this participation is possible at a number of levels – at the national level, at the level of the states/union territories and at the grass roots level – the panchayat and urban bodies. Besides these institutions of parliamentary democracy, there are a number of paragovernmental institutions which run on the principles of electoral democracy and public representation. For example, a cooperative society formed for the purpose of providing developmental finance in a locality can elect its own representatives from among its residents. However, in a multicultural society, such as the one we have in India, parliamentary democracy founded on the principles of electoral rules often fails to provide ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities opportunities to get elected and become part of the governance structure.

Muslim participation in elected bodies is known to be small. Of the 543 candidates in the current Lok Sabha, only 36 are Muslims. Even if the share of Muslims in elected bodies is low they and other under-represented segments can be involved in the decision making process through innovative mechanisms. The experiment undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh government can be used to enhance Muslim participation in the decision making processes.