Day 36 – Q 4.What are some of the foundational values for civil services? Why are they called ‘foundational’? Explain.
4. What are some of the foundational values for civil services? Why are they called ‘foundational’? Explain.
नागरिक सेवाओं के लिए कुछ मूलभूत मूल्य क्या हैं? उन्हें ‘मूलभूत’ क्यों कहा जाता है? स्पष्ट करें।
Introduction:
Civil services are an integral part of Indian democracy and considered as “Steel Frame” of governance. They play a great role in societal development as they have the responsibilities of both decision making and policy implementation. There are some foundational values which are must for better administration.
Body: As per the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, the foundational values of the service are
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Impartiality
- Dedication to public service
- Compassion towards weaker sections.
They are Foundational because:
- Impartiality and non-partisanship: It decides on merit and is free from any partisan consideration. Further, a non-partisan civil service is also responsible to the Constitution of the land to which they have taken an oath of loyalty.
- Integrity: Basically integrity approach empowers an individual to make a value judgment about right or wrong. It is a value-driven instead of rule-driven. One has to learn how to deal with challenges and dilemmas.
- Impartiality: Impartiality implies that the behavior and treatment by a bureaucrat to any individual or entity has to be exclusively based on merit. To make fair, just, equitable effective and efficient decisions, there has to be absolute impartiality.
- Non Partisanship: Non-partisanship infers that the officer is to do his task without any fear of, or favor to any political party. The values of the administrator will flow from the constitution, not from the philosophy of any political party. Non-partisanship strengthens the democratic procedures and institutions along with maintaining the integrity of the service.
- Objectivity: Objectivity is founding advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence. It entails that truth remains true universally, independently of human thought or approaches. An objective approach is particularly important in decision-making processes.
- Dedication: Dedication is the eminence of people to be devoted or loyal to duty or purpose, thought or action. Dedication is a vital personality trait of an individual. This value gives the ability to continue acting when motivation is lacking. Dedication will drive to certain task rapidly.
- Empathy, Tolerance and Compassion towards the weaker sections: Public servants are meant to serve and this requires developing a humanistic attitude. These values guarantee that the public servants act sympathetically and interpret the rules to advance the public interest.
Importance of these Values:
- These foundational values ensure an effective civil service which functions honestly, impartially and efficiently.
- These values empower the administrator to fill the gaps of trust deficit between the citizens and the Government.
- These foundational values provide lawfulness to the behavior of an administrator and make it more effective.
- Since civil servants have discretionary powers the values are important to give them certain guidance to prevent abuse of power.
Conclusion:
The civil servants have to abide by a common set of values which can cater to larger interests of society at large and to achieve social, political and economic justice.
