Muslims’ tryst with civil services

In June, tens of thousands of civil services aspirants will take the preliminary examinations. Only a small percentage — much less than the community’s proportion in the population — will be Muslims.

One reason why Muslims constitute just around 3% of the country’s top-rung bureaucracy is that few youngsters from the community opt for the civil services. Results of the 2010 civil services exams that were declared  showed that of the 920 candidates who cleared, the number of Muslims is 31 or just 3%, though the community constitutes more than 13% of the population.

Many community leaders feel that Muslims should take their due share in the bureaucratic ranks. Their hope is projects like the Haj House training centre for Muslim civil services candidates.

This year, the first batch of candidates who completed the training course will take the exams. Of the 33 students, 10 are women.

The centre started working in December 2009. Though it sent a few candidates for the 2010 exams, this is the first batch that could complete the training. “The 2009 batch started late and candidates could barely get three months of training. There were a lot of teething problems,” said Dr Shakir Hussain, chief executive of the Central Haj Committee which has set up the centre. The centre is not funded by the government. The fees — Rs2,500 a month for accommodation, food and tuition charges — is subsidised by donations.

Hussain said that the experiment of Maharashtra which has seen a rise in the number of successful civil services aspirants after the setting up of a training centre showed that such centres are successful. Former principal of Akbar Peerbhoy College SAM Hashmi, who has been heading the training centre, said, “The number of applications from the community is small. There cannot be a large number of finalists if the number of applicants is low,” said Hashmi.

The trainees come from varied backgrounds. Aasarmahel Javed, a mechanical engineer from Bhiwandi, said that he had decided to join the civil services when he was doing his engineering course. “After all, the civil services are the administrative wing of the government. As implementers of government polices, bureaucrats have a chance to bridge the gap in social and economic inequalities,” said Javed.

According to Hussain, efforts by community groups to create awareness about the civil services competitive examination are drawing more Muslim aspirants to courses like the one at Haj House. The success of Shah Faesal, the first candidate from Jammu and Kashmir to top the examinations, has also inspired candidates.

For Muhammadi Sumayya, a graduate from Nashik University, the encouragement to join the civil services came from the family. Her parents in Nanded who are academicians — her father is a college lecturer and mother a school teacher — were keen that she joins government service. But she wanted to get a medical degree first.