By Remya Roshni,IPS(ex), Academic Director, Pathways IAS Academy
The perception of people of Kerala about civil service is mainly derived from media and movies. Even
people who study in the Best IAS academy in Trivandrum are clueless about the actual career.
According to popular culture, a good civil servant should always fight with politicians who are corrupt.
Another notion is that an honest officer often get transfers from one post to another because of their
non-yielding spirit. Other than these kind of pre conceived notions, people seldom enquire about the
nature of the job because of the prestige, power and status associated with it. But it is important to
understand some basic facts about what a civil servant does before one decide to choose this as a career.
India is the most populous country in the world and to manage such a big country is a herculean task. So,
the civil service of India which is responsible for delivering service to the mass is huge. Irrespective of the
political changes, this iron frame of permanent executive is responsible for the existence of rule of law
and democracy in our country. The people who enter into service after clearing the civil service
examination are entering into this large system of hierarchy where there will be subordinates to manage
and superiors to report. The system demands team players. This is contrary to the popular belief of
expected individual heroism by officers portrayed in movies. One should learn to obey and command as
per requirement of the position one hold in the system for the smooth functioning of things. Of course,
there need to be grievance redressal mechanisms when things go wrong, but discipline and decorum has
to be there instead of outbursts of heroism.
An important characteristic of bureaucracy is that there will always be shortage of funds. India being a
developing country, needs to prioritize how the resources are put to use. For larger projects, government is seeking private investment now a days. Apart from this constrain, the red tapism, with its elaborate
procedures and rigid rules can always delay the disposal of funds. Coaching centres like Kerala state
civil service academy, Thiruvananthapuram also face fund constraints. So, a civil servant always needs
to manage with whatever is available when it comes to finances. In case of emergencies like natural
calamities also, the officers need to arrange things first in spite of the resource constraints. This
compromises the quality of service but one has to manage with whatever is available.
Another issue with the Government is that one cannot exactly pick the team one work with. A person who
is posted to a district as an administrator or to a department need to work and manage things with the
people who are already there. To get things done with a bunch of people who are protected by the security of tenure and the permanency of government service can be challenging. A young person in his/her twenties getting into service may need to work with people who have experience over two decades.
Both the routine work and innovative ideas needs to be implemented with the given team. So, like the financial resources there are constraints related to human resources. A person who is a perfectionist can find these circumstances very tiring. The size and diversity of the administrative system with a lot of departments demand that a person who enter into this system should be a fast learner. In short, civil service is all about getting things done in the best possible way; not the perfect way. The watch word is management; manage with whatever is available and at one’s disposal.
