The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has published its results for 2010. A Chennai-based law graduate S Divyadharshini has topped the prestigious Civil Services Examination. A total of 920 candidates, including 203 women, have been selected for it. Only 26 of the 920 candidates selected this year (2011) for the civil services are Muslims (2.8%). Out of 26 Muslim candidates three are female candidates.

Though the community accounts for 13.4 per cent of India’s population, the proportion of Muslims selected for the Civil Services in any year has never exceeded 3.91 per cent. It means even handicapped candidates are better placed than Muslims. Female candidates are ten times the number of Muslims. In the previous year, 21 Muslim candidates got through out of 875. It clearly reflects the backwardness and lack of drive among Muslim candidates.

The top 25 candidates consist of 20 men and five women – 15 of whom are engineers, five belonging to Commerce, Management, Humanities, Science and Social Sciences; and five belonging to medical science background. Of the top 25, eight have made to the merit list in their first attempt while four made it in their second attempt, nine in third attempt, three in fourth attempt and one in fifth attempt.

Among those selected, 28 are physically challenged candidates while 14 are orthopaedically challenged, five visually impaired and nine hearing impaired. A total number of 5,47,698 candidates applied for this examination and 2,69,036 candidates appeared for the Preliminary examination, which was conducted on May 23, 2010. As many as 12,491 candidates qualified for the main written examination held in October-November 2010 and 2,589 candidates were shortlisted for the personality tests conducted in March-April 2011 out of which 920 were selected.

They have been recommended for appointment, including 428 General (including 19 Physically Challenged), 270 OBCs (including 8 Physically Challenged candidates), 148 Scheduled Castes (including one physically challenged candidates) and 74 Scheduled Tribes candidates. There are 151 vacancies in IAS, 35 vacancies in IFS and 150 in IPS as published by UPSC.

The results clearly show the gross underrepresentation of India’s largest minority while other communities have performed well. Its time for the government to implement the Sachar Committee and Ranganatha Mishra Commissions recommendations in letter and spirit. The civil society has a major role to play in bridging the gap between the Muslim community and other sections of society.