ROLE OF CIVIL SERVICES IN DEMOCRACY
Bureaucracy is defined as a professional body of officials organised in a pyramidal hierarchy and functioning under impersonal, uniform rules and procedures to secure the goals of their organisations.
Characteristics of Bureaucracy
- Permanent Character: The civil servants hold permanent jobs in government departments.
- Hierarchical Organisation: Bureaucracy is hierarchically organised in several levels.
- Non-partisan Character: The members of the Bureaucracy are not directly involved in politics. They cannot join political parties and participate in political movements.
- Professional, Trained and Expert Class
- Fixed Salaries
- Bound by Rules and Regulations
- Bound by a Code of Conduct: They have to act in a disciplined way. Their rights, duties, and privileges stand clearly defined.
- Public Service Spirit as the Ideal
Functions of Civil Services
- Governance and Administrative functions:
- Basis of government: By virtue of being the implementation arm of government, no government can exist without it.
- Policy Formulation: Civil servants are a major participant in policy formulation as they act as a channel of communication between state and citizens.
- Maintain Continuity: Civil servants are the permanent executive while the government may come and go.
- Delegated Legislation: In recent times due to less time available, legislature gives a broad outline of the legislation and delegates to the civil servants the power to make details of that legislation.
- Unity and Integrity: As they are present all over the country, they provide a strong binding character.
- Economic functions:
- Formulation of Economic Policies: This helps in keeping the economy on track and ensuring financial crises do not take place.
- Generation of Income: The civil services help the government generate revenues. Ex – collection of taxes.
- Management of public enterprises: Civil servants are also managing public enterprises and public utilities in the interest of socio-economic justice. Ex – Former IAS Officer Dr. P. D. Shenoy optimized the performance of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which had made losses continuously for 13 years.
- Welfare functions:
- Poverty Alleviation: Ex – West Champaran DM, Kundan Kumar, a 2012-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, launched a unique ‘Startup Zone’ for returning migrant workers.
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections: Schemes and their implementation for elderlies, women, SCs/STs, differently abled, etc. Ex – Ashish Saxena DM Jhabua, Sathidar Abhiyan – intends to bring an end to reserve dowry system by making social leaders aware of the adversities of the system.
- Protective function:
- Maintenance of law and order: The civil servants are the first ones to tackle any kind of law-and-order situation. For Ex: During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, imposition of Section 144 and the subsequent actions undertaken.
- Environment protection – Ex: Astik Kumar Pandey, DM, Akola – Mission Clean Morna River, a citizen-driven mass movement to clean river Morna in Akola District of Maharashtra.
- Facilitative function:
- Development of infrastructure: Such as modes of transportation, communication, etc. Ex – Tukaram Mundhe, DM, Navi Mumbai, implemented tech to gather real-time data of bus routes. This reduced skipping of bus stops by operators by 50% from March 2017.
- Crisis management: Before, during, and after a disaster, pandemics, industrial accidents, etc., civil servants work towards reducing the damage. For Ex – C.R. Kharsan, DM Valsad [Gujarat] started E-Megh project, an early flood warning system which uses IoT sensors on the upstream location of the rivers and can give real-time information and alerts to Village/Towns downstream, reducing majorly on the loss of life and property.
Evolution of Civil Services in India:
- Pre Colonial India:
- Kautilya’s Arthashastra lays down the principles of selection and promotion of the civil servants, the conditions of loyalty for appointment to the civil service, the methods of their performance evaluation. Functionaries such as ‘Amatyas’ and ‘Sachivas’ have been mentioned.
- Medieval India: Centralized administration was practised during this era. The primary functions of civil services were management of land revenue, factories administration, etc.
- British-era
- Warren Hastings: Office of District Collector was first created by Lord Warren Hastings.
- Lord Cornwallis: Father of modern civil services, Lord Cornwallis created police service, judicial service and revenue services, formulated the code of conduct for civil servants.
- Lord William Bentinck: He restored and revived magisterial powers of district collector which was divested by Lord Cornwallis.
- Charter Act of 1853: It ended the company’s patronage and provided for open competition in recruitment.
- Indian Civil Service: The British government set up the Indian civil service in 1911. Later on, they added a statutory civil service and central civil services.
- Post-Independence period
- Presently, the civil services are categorized into:
- Central Civil Services [function under union government]
- All India Services [common to centre and states]
- State Civil Services [function under respective state government]
- Union and State Services can be classified into Group A, B and C categories based on their role and responsibilities.
Civil services are the ‘steel frame’ of India. However, over the years it has undergone several changes in keeping up the spirit of democracy and welfare of the people central to its functioning. While its role in democratic functioning of the nation is of paramount importance, the ills that are rusting the steel frame need to be worked upon so as to stop it from weakening beyond repair.