10% reserved staff positions in Central government lying vacant

Even as quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for promotions in government jobs was debated in the last session of Parliament

Even as quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for promotions in government jobs was debated in the last session of Parliament,the current status of their representation in Central government jobs throws a new light into the ground situation. Despite 49.5 per cent reservation for SC,ST,and OBC categories,only 39.43 per cent of the 30.12 lakh Union government employees belong to the reserved categories. This is part of the information accessed from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) by The Indian Express under the RTI Act.

It implies that more than 10 per cent of the reserved category posts are lying vacant. The government last collated these figures in January 2011 and the data does not include two small ministries,the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. It includes all employees from Group A officials to Safai Karmcharis and excludes those hired on contract.

Out of the 30.12 lakh employees from all categories,5.18 lakh belong to SC category,2.22 lakh from ST category,and 4.47 lakh from the OBC category. This translates to 17.21 per cent,7.38 per cent and 14.84 per cent for SC,ST and OBC employees,respectively.

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It was found that the percentage of reserved category employees were a little high in Group C and D when compared to Group A and B. Out of the total 77,455 Group A officials,8,922 are from SC,3,733 from ST and 5,357 from OBC category. This translates to 11.5 per cent,4.8 per cent and 6.9 per cent for each category. Among the 1,90,134 Group B officials,14.9 per cent are from SC,6 per cent from ST and 7.3 per cent from OBC category.

According to DoPT,out of 22.6 lakh Group C employees the percentage share of SC,ST and OBC categories are 16.4 per cent,7.7 per cent and 15.3 per cent,respectively. On the other hand,of the 3.9 lakh Group D employees,the representation of SC,ST and OBC are 19.6 per cent,7 per cent and 18.1 per cent,respectively. Among the 83,356 Safai Karmcharis,32,811 belong to SC,5,196 are from ST and 9,667 belong to OBC.

In the Central government jobs,15 per cent seats are reserved for SCs,7.5 per cent seats for STs and 27 per cent seats for OBCs. The reason for the low representation of OBCs despite the fact that they have 27 per cent quota is that reservation for this category was implemented only in September 1993.

Moreover,while government departments initiate special recruitment schemes for reserved categories,no large-scale recruitment is done. On the other hand,many ministries have appointed large number of employees on contractual basis. Such appointments do not come under the purview of reservation.

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