Fresh data placed before Parliament has revealed a sharp skew in the social composition of India’s top civil services, with the overwhelming majority of officers belonging to the general category between 2020 and 2024

The Union government has informed the parliament that 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, with members of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) accounting for only 8.01%, 10.16% and 17.28% of these posts in the period between 2020-2024.

The government has also told the parliament that of the total authorised strength of 15,169 of IAS, IPS and IFS there are 2,834 vacancies (18.6%).

The data presented in the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh on February 12 shows that there are a total of 5,577 IAS, 4,594 IPS and 2,164 IFS officers 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 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.

Singh has also informed the parliament in his written reply that of the total authorised strength of the IAS of 6877, about 18.9% posts have not been filled, leaving 1,300 vacancies.

In the IPS, against the total authorised strength of 5099, 9.9% posts have not been filled with 505 vacancies. The IFS has the highest share of vacancies of 32.2% with a total authorised strength of 3,193 and 1,029 posts lying vacant.