Civil Service Numbers Show Fewer Women

The average age of those taking the exam also saw a decline. The number of selected candidates who are below 28 years has been rising in the past three years. In 2011, about 45 percent candidates fell in this group, while less than 12 percent were above 32. In 2007 reasonably, only 3 candidates among 306 were below 28 years of age while over 65 percent were 32 years or above. The trend started to change in 2009, when around 15 percent of the selected candidates were below 28 years of age, while 36 percent were above 32 years of age.

Till 2002, most states had representation proportional to their population among the selected candidates, with only Arunachal Pradesh, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep and Sikkim having zero representation. But, in 2011, the number of states having zero representation had increased to seven.

Over 77 percent of the selected candidates in 2011 were from 10 big states with 62 percent of the country’s population, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Haryana.

The states with representation proportionally higher than their population were Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Candidates from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, though, made up numbers below their population level. The representation of Maharashtra and Punjab was roughly proportional to their population.