Despite having almost 50% seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), 92% of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 90% of Indian Police Service (IPS) and about 82% of Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers belong to the general category.
The information was tabled in Rajya Sabha. As per the officers from SC, ST and OBC account for only 8.01%, 10.16% and 17.28% respectively of these posts in the period between 2020-2024.
The total authorised strength of 15,169 of IAS, IPS and IFS while there are 2,834 vacancies (18.6%).
The report says that there are total of 5,577 IAS, 4,594 IPS and 2,164 IFS officers serving at present.
“Of this in the IAS, only 2.42% are from SC communities, 1.2% from ST and 4.39% from OBC communities. In the IPS, 3.06% are from SC communities, 1.54% from ST and 5.5% from OBC communities. In the IFS, 4.39% are from SC communities, 2.21% from ST and from 10.67% OBC communities,” the report says.
The total number of officers in the IAS from SC, ST and OBC communities are 135, 67, and 245 respectively. In the IPS 141, 71 and 231 are from SC, ST and OBC communities respectively. In the IFS on the other hand, 95, 48 and 231 are from SC, ST and OBC communities respectively.
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