Questioning the ‘Quota’: Who Benefits? A Comparative Analysis of Civil Service Recruitment in South Asia

This paper deals with one of the fundamental aspects of the recruitment policy of civil service in Bangladesh and Nepal, that is, the reservation of certain portion of vacancies for special groups of the population. The aim of the paper is to examine the relevance and long-term consequences of affirmative action in a developing country context. The paper argues that without having a transparent public administration and democratic political culture, affirmative action can turn into a system of political patronage. And, a system of political patronage, over time, reduces the confidence in and legitimacy of the state itself. Having reviewed the relevance of the existing quota policy and practice in the civil service recruitment in Bangladesh and Nepal, the paper shows that due to the quota, political polarization is being entrenched in the civil service; the civil service is increasingly falling short of delivering mandated services efficiently and effectively. The paper also shows that there is a huge concern across sections of the society about the relevance and consequences of the existing practice of quota reservation for certain groups, especially, for the children and grand children of so-called freedom fighters. The paper, with the evidence from in-depth interviews and a large-scale survey of civil servants concludes that the existing quota policy will undermine the capacity of the civil service to deliver adequate services for the country to move into the middle-income category.