70th Foundation Training Course

(27 October 2019 – 23 April 2020)

Title of the Book:

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN SOUTH ASIAN
CIVIL SERVICES

Author
SYEDA LASNA KABIR

Presenter
Md. Delowar Hossain
Roll No- 08

Shadow Chairperson
Nargis Jahan
Director (Training), RDA, Bogra

Rural development academy (RDA), Bogura-5842

 Title of the Book
Women’s Participation in South Asian Civil Services

Author: : Syeda Lasna Kabir

Published by: : Md. Aynul Hossain

A H Development Publishing House

143, New Market, Dhaka- 1205.

First Published : 2013
Email ahdphbd@gmail.com
Copyright : ©Author
Cover Design by : Abdus Salam Khokon
Price : BDT 700.00

US $ 50.00
Total Page : 238
Author Profile

Syeda Lasna Kabir is a Professor of Public Administration,

University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has been working on women’s issues for more than a

decade and has conducted some research works on diverse aspects of women. Her research

interest includes gender and development, organizational cultures, public policy and

governance. Besides, she has special interest in comparing the issues relating to civil service

systems in different South Asian countries. She has written widely and published a number of

articles and chapters in national/international journals and books.

 Table of Contents

Sl. No Topic Page Number

01 Introduction 01
02 Explanation of the Problem 02
03 Global Gender Inequality 02
04 Necessity of Women’s Participation in Development 03
05 The Civil Service of India and Women’s Position 03
06 The Civil Service of Pakistan and Women’s Position 04
07 The Civil Service of Bangladesh and Women’s Position 06
08 Methodology of the Study 07
09 Reasons of Less Women’s Participation 08
10 Main Findings of the Research 10
11 Key Activities to Minimize Gender Inequality 14
12 Conclusion 14
13 Criticism 17
Introduction:
There is a big difference between male and female in almost all countries of the world in

terms of cadre service jobs. Women have little access to public employment.Very few

women have the chance to come cadre service and who come do not get their right status. A

very low number of women occupy key decision making positions in the public service. In

the past the members of bureaucracy were choose on the basis of merit. But the merit

principle was rather narrowly interpreted to favour a small group of people who had the

opportunity, with the backing of prevailing social values, to gain entry to institutions of

higher learning to develop their competence for governmental jobs. High entry standards and

certain other prohibitions deprived a large segment of the population, especially women, from

serving society.

Explanation of the Problem:

The author analyzed about women’s participation in South Asia’s (Bangladesh, India and

Pakistan) civil services. Roots of public administration in this region can be addresed to the

past. Past developments during pre-British and pre-Mughal regime are important, yet “new”

public administration in this region has been significantly molded by almost two centuries

of British colonial domination of the Indian-subcontinent. Almost all sight of Indian

society were influenced and old governing institutions were madein the British model as the

British tradition helped the bureaucracy in this region to become an essential tool of

governance. Public administration was the main pivot that cut through institutions like the

executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Bangladesh, like India and Pakistan, basically

adhere to the same ideology and structure of bureaucracy as embodied in the ethos of Indian

Civil Service (ICS).

Global Gender Inequality:

Women represent 50 percent of the world’s full-aged population and one-third of the official

labour force, they perform nearly two-thirds of all working hours but receive only one-tenth

of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent of the world’s wealth. Globally women

cover just over 10% of representatives in national government. Human Development Reports

prepared by the United Nations Development Program since 1995 till 2003, shows that, “not

a single country treats women as well as men”.

Necessity of Women’s Participation in Development:

Women are left behind economically, socially and culturally in the traditional cramped of the

society. Their socio-economic development cannot truly acquired without the active

participation of women at the decision making level in society, and the development of

women influence on development of the whole society. The idea of Women in Development

(WID) organized in the early 70’s when women’s emancipation gradually appeared on the

international development agenda. In response to the world benefit on the status of women, in

1972, the UN declared 1975 as the “International Women’s Year” with a view to ensuring the

social, political and economic advancement of women.

The Civil Service of India and Women’s Position:

The Civil Service in India is divided of the central and the provincial civil services. The

central government has constituted the three All-India services [Indian Administrative

Service (IAS), the Indian Forest Service (IFC), and the Indian Police Service (IPS)] and other

Class I central services categorized as Group A, B, C, and D services. Every provincial

government has 10-20 services, depending on its historical background and size. There is no

particular reservation for women in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Their entry is on

merit alone. On the basis of Indian Constitution, there is no bar of persons belonging to

different regions, castes, and creed to join the civil services. There is no gender disparity.

There is no bias for people with a particular educational background, which could facilitate

their entry to the civil services. In the case of ‘SC and ST’ the reservation is about 22 percent

in the AIS (All India Services -IAS, IPS and IFS). This is not helpful to women unless and

until women fall under that category only then can she utilize the benefit.
The Civil Service of Pakistan and Women’s Position:

After its generation in 1947, Pakistan had kept intact the civil service system developed by

the British. Although the 1956 and 1962 constitutions of Pakistan ensured same opportunity

for all citizens with regard to public employment, in reality the situation was quite different.

The formation of Pakistan Civil Service, however, underwent some changes according to

the need of time and in the changed circumstances, for example regarding appointment

of women in different cadres. It was cleanly mentioned in the recruitment rules of the civil

services that women will be considered only for (a) audit and accounts service, (b) railway

accounts service, (c) military accounts service, (d) income tax and postal services. However,

they were not eligible to enter the All-Pakistan Services, i.e. the Civil Service of Pakistan

(CSP) and the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP). Nevertheless, women were increasingly

appointed to those professional services such as education and health both at the central and

provincial parts well as to the subordinate services.

In addition, they will receive appointment to those services in which they are fit after

selection, only when they voluntarily declare that they would resign from their service after

marriage or remarriage. The then Pakistan Government was of the opinion that once women

enter into matrimony, their skill diminish.

The Civil Service of Bangladesh and Women’s Position:

Bangladesh succeeded the administrative form and civil service system developed in

Pakistan, which was a continuation of the system of the British period. It was known as the

most distinguished civil service in the world. The service of this heaven born service was the

product of the old order.

The government of Bangladesh has a two-tier administrative process. The higher tier is the

central secretariat at the national level consisting of the ministries and divisions to provide

policies and to perform clearing house operation. The other tier consists of ‘line’

departments/directorates attached to the ministries and divisions that are mainly responsible

for general administration, service delivery to citizens and implementation of various

government development programs at the sub-national level. The civil service has been

classified vertically into four groups, namely class-I, class-II, class-III, and class-IV, based on

such variables as levels of responsibility, educational qualification and pay range. The

category class-I is the upper category of civil servants.

After freedom in 1971, the Bangladesh government took certain steps to upgrade women’s

participation in the realm of administration and policy making. The constitution of

Bangladesh gives same right to women to enter any employment or office in the civil service.

The constitution not only ensures same of sexes but also acknowledges the necessity of

remedying the existing unequal representation by reserving certain percentage of civil service

posts for the women. In spite of constitutional law for guaranteeing same representation of

women in all sectors and continuous support and cooperation from national and international

agencies in advocating women rights, the situation of women employment in administration

has remained marginal. In 2007, out of total public sector employment of 10, 03,021, only 1,

88,848 are women.

Methodology of the Study:

The methodology of the study include identifying and interviewing women administrators

using an appropriately modified version of the interview schedule and questionnaire, which

was created by the researcher with the guidance of her supervisor. In India samples covered

only the IAS women officers. In Pakistan only the DMG women officers were being targeted,

however, since the researcher couldn’t go there personally, information was taken through

email and phone calls. In the case of Bangladesh, the samples covered only the women

officers who are in Administrative cadre. The duration of data collection were ten month

(January-2008 to October -2008).

In each country, questionnaires were distributed to all women administrators in the named top

ranks. Of the approximately 60 persons (20 persons from each country) 36 responded; 15

from India (Delhi, Mumbai and Pune), 5 from Pakistan (Islamabad) and 16 from Bangladesh

(all from Dhaka). The questionnaires, which were generally completed by the respondents in

their homes or offices, were followed with in-depth interviews which occurred in the

respondents’ offices. Each respondent was go two to three times by the researcher to get the

responses. Regarding the respondents from Pakistan, the in- depth interview were generally

conducted through phone calls. The guesses number of respondents from academic and

research background was 30 (10 from each country). From India 10 responded, from Pakistan

2 and from Bangladesh 10 responded. In other words, 22 responded out of 30. Therefore,

compared was made mainly between India and Bangladesh. The researcher tried to bridge the

data gap through restricted primary and secondary data to make a compare with Pakistan too.
Reasons of Less Women’s Participation:

The administrators recognized some factors which affect their participation are mentioned

below:

Factors Affecting Participation: from the Perspectives of Administrators

 Gender

 Influence of politics

 Commitment of family (Domestic, childcare and other domestic responsibilities)

 Organizational procedures and policies (Problems of transfer, promotion, deputation

etc)

 Requirement to work in different locations (field work unsuitable as lack of facilities

in the field offices)

 Lack of friendly and congenial working environment ( negative/traditional out look

of male colleagues, superiors and subordinates)

 Lack of skill and ability to take a decision individually

The academicians also cited some factors which are pointed out below:

1. Ideological Factors (Patriarchy)

2. Socio-Cultural Factors (Masculine cultural pattern)

3. Quotas (gender quota should be linked with social and economic redistributive justice

in the society)

They also cited some barriers which are broadly divided under two:

1. Personal Barriers (Dual responsibilities, transferable nature of job etc.)

2. Organizational Barriers (Lack of supportive work environment in the work place,

superiority complex of the male colleagues, Societal backwardness etc.)

Main Findings of the Research:

It is obvious from the above discussion that women’s active participation in the civil service

is prevented because of the issues raised above by the women administrators, academicians

and researchers of WID issues. These issues can be described as follows:

Organizational Factors

The maximum of respondents from all the three countries cited that initially they didn’t face

any problems regarding promotion and other policies offered by the organization as it is

generally based on an organizational time frame. Later on in the higher level women faced

discrimination and in the big cities women face more problems compared to small cities.

Promotion, transfer, deputation, placement every place women faced discrimination. They

complained that they are always in number ‘2’ in their own departments. They cited that a

women’s work is assessed not necessarily by neutral objective criteria. The gender angle

somehow creeps in, directly or indirectly. Thus, women who speak up are “aggressive” while

their male counterparts are “dynamic”. Women who show sympathy or are caring are

considered “weak” or “emotional” while men are take into account the “new- age males”.

Women who put the job first, even before family, and gets things done are considered “hard”

when a man would be considered “efficient”.

Cultural Factors

According to G. Hofstadter’s cultural dimension it was gauses that India, Pakistan and

Bangladesh are a Masculine society. Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender

roles are clearly distinct. The pre dominant pattern is for men to be more assertive and for

women to be more support. These masculinity cultural patterns of these countries mark out

specific sex roles in the society which give women an extremely low scope for employment

opportunity.

Cultural norms carry on to inhibit women’s access to education, in general, and higher

education, in particular. Gender discrimination of roles assigns women to the domestic

sphere, i.e. to early marriage, taking care of children and home work. In almost all masculine

communities, the most clearly defined role for women has been that of mother and wife.

Motherhood as distinct from fatherhood has traditionally been viewed as a full time job. Even

when employed outdoor of the home, women tend to remain responsible for the mothering

and simple housekeeping activities (Davidson, Sir burg and Hill, 1974: 185-188; cited in

Bays, 1991: 28).The wife-mother syndrome pervades the behaviour and role activities of all

women in this Indian subcontinent to some extent and socializes all women to avoid success,

to be unambitious and to be passive even if they have gained admittance in to the

administrative service cadre ( Lynn and Vaden, 1978: 209; cited in Bayes, 1991: 29). This

might be the reason for low presence and low participation of women in the civil service.

Key Activities to Minimize Gender Inequality:

In most of the developing countries of the world the governmental stapes is based on gender

analysis which strengthens the relationship between men and women, rather than an

exclusive focus on women. Indeed, men are important partners in efforts to close the ‘Gender

gap’. The constitution of Bangladesh has made important provisions to give equal

opportunity for males and females in every steps of life. Moreover, the government taken

quotas for women in entering the civil service. National action plan, 1998 has been taken by

the government for increasing female participation in the local sector and decision making

levels. These steps played significant role to increase women participation, but still it is very

low in percentage.

Conclusion:
The above discussion gives us a broad understanding regarding women’s participation in the

civil service in these three countries. Although the efforts government has taken to increase

the entrance and upward mobility of its women administrators, the overall figures are not

good; women administrators, especially in the upper stage, are still very low in number.

Those who started in junior positions experience many obstacle to career advancement. One

of the more general obstacle is the existing pattern of gender roles; majority of women civil

servants think that they faced discrimination because of that. They think the women who

pursue a career in public administration; the choice carry on to be between career and

children. A lack of office and other facilities as well as the negative behaviour of personnel

officers who are afraid of deviant cases, are both strong obstacle in the process of

participating in the decision making sector for women. As long as governments are

unwilling to accommodate the needs of women for more flexible hours and for child care the

position of women will not increase, in spite of general political climate that supports the

hiring of maximum women.

Criticism:
 Enough data and chart was presented which was easily understandable

 The language is easy to understand but repetition of same thing in few places creates

annoyance

 Get up of the book is nice

 Described about only three countries of South Asia

 Unnecessary explanations are given in few chapters