Effects of reservation policy for the inclusive civil service of Nepal
Creators: name: Bhul, Baburam
Publisher: name: Central Department of Public Administration, Tribhuvan University, Unpublished M.Phil. Thesis
Year: 2020
Subjects: Inclusive policy, reservation system, civil Service, Nepal

description: ABSTRACTThis research study aims to carry out the perceptional effects of reservation policy for the inclusive civil service of Nepal with the theoretical foundation of an equitable and just society. Access to opportunities is to be provided to every individual and group. because the unequal and biased approach to opportunity obviously leads to development in a diversified society, which causes inequality and injustice. People feel justice when they get equal access to power, resources, and opportunities created by the state.In order to increase this access, reservation is one of the tools of social inclusion that has been recently introduced in Nepal. The main motive behind the policy was to increase participation and expand the capacities of marginalized communities as well as women in the civil service. Based on these facts, the dependent variable of the study is reservation policy, and the independent variables are representativeness, participation, perception and performance ownership, recognition, empowerment, and integration of marginalized people in the civil service.Therefore, reservation, or affirmative action, has been regarded as one of the tools to increase the participation of underrepresented groups and communities in public services. However, many scholars believe that this system needs proper handling as it may destroy merit-based system in the civil service. In the case of Nepal, the merit-based bureaucratic system of the past somehow failed to proportionately recruit people from different marginalized communities, and social imbalance was created in the society from having access to opportunities. Similarly, the absence of respectable and dynamic representation in nation-building activities prevented equal benefit sharing in governance and the nation's development. This is why the Civil Service Act, 2049, of Nepal introduced the reservation system. in 2007 into government employment. Twelve years of period is sufficient to evaluate the effects of the policy, and the impacts created need to be assessed in relation to its goal. This newly introduced system has been able to have some positive impacts in terms of increasing representation of some marginalized communities, but has created some controversies and confusions as well. If reservation is not categorized properly as a tool of inclusion, it may continue to be under the domination of a limited elite group even within the excluded groups.This study adopted a mixed method, having both a qualitative and quantitative approach. For gathering primary data, a questionnaire survey was carried out at the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), Nepal, and the Public Service Commission (PSC), Nepal. Similarly, other Methods of primary data collection include non-participatory observations and participatory interview methods. In order to show the linkage between primary and secondary data, content analysis was conducted from the observational notes, field notes, and responses collected by open-ended as well as closed-ended questionnaires. For the questionnaire survey, the total number of respondents was 130 (including six key respondents who were interviewed). In this study, purposive and quota sampling are used, and the The researcher has set the questionnaire in statement form for the study. A four-point Likert scale was used to apply values to the categorical data, and further, this scale was again recoded into two scales for further analysis. IBM SPSS 25 version was used to gather frequency, percentage, and cross-tabulation of the survey. Along with it, the bivariate analysis was done to show the linkage between the dependent variable and the independent variable.The bivariate analysis between the dependent variable and the independent variable shows the effects of gender, age, and education on the inclusiveness of the civil service, i.e., there is a high relationship between these variables. Individual effects of reservation for the Inclusivity shows that there is a highly significant relationship between individual participation and individual performance with the inclusiveness of the civil service, whereas the organizational effects of the reservation system show a highly significant relationship between the representativeness and participation in the civil service of Nepal. Along with it, other variables of individual effects like attraction, recognition, level of confidence, educational achievement, motivation into the civil service, and so on show high significant relations. inclusiveness, and these factors definitely play a very crucial role in the achievement of the individual's desired targets. Along with it, a strong relationship with the inclusiveness of the civil service shows that it differs slightly between the two variables. Therefore, we can conclude that there is a less significant relationship between the organizational effects of inclusiveness and individual effects in the civil service of Nepal. Therefore, the ultimate objective of this policy is to enhance capability, as said by Sen. (2000), so more considerations are needed in building meaningful participation. The Nepalese reservation system has not yet given comprehensive attention to all the dimensions of exclusion, but its effects on generating the attraction of some targeted marginalized people towards the national bureaucratic system are literally praiseworthy.