E-Paper
Survey: 83% of IAS officers feel states must have autonomy to formulate own responses in crises
A survey conducted among 570 retired and serving IAS officers found that 83 per cent of them opined states must have the autonomy to formulate their own responses based on the needs and capacities and close to 85 per cent believed that effective communication works better than penal measures to curb people’s inherent tendencies towards indiscipline
A survey conducted among 570 retired and serving IAS officers found that 83 per cent of them opined states must have the autonomy to formulate their own responses based on the needs and capacities and close to 85 per cent believed that effective communication works better than penal measures to curb people’s inherent tendencies towards indiscipline.
The survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi through August and September 2020 last year asked civil servants to reflect on the decisions, actions and conduct of the Indian state, bureaucracy, citizens, and key non-state actors and agencies in response to the Covid-19 crisis and its management.
The survey has found some interesting results based on the responses given by the participants, a striking 83 per cent agreed that states must have the autonomy to formulate their own responses based on their needs and capacities, this response was similar across seniority.
Mahesh Zagade, retired IAS officer and former PMC commissioner said, “The protocols made by the Centre or state are also made along with IAS officers keeping in mind the ground situation. I think the example of the nationwide lockdown when it comes to giving states the autonomy, all I can say is that I know the laws and the provisions, the Centre had to take the step because the states did nothing. When I handled H1N1, I broke multiple WHO norms, but I took those decisions only because I knew the ground situation. Like for example WHO has said that there should be only one screening centre which was Naidu hospital at the time which I then increased to seven and then 49 as thousands of patients started coming forward. I was even criticised by the Central team and also the state but when they got to the ground situation, they understood my action. So, my comment is that protocols are not sacrosanct and so in this case when the states did not do anything the Centre took the drastic step.”
In view of the nationwide lockdown imposed, the responses garnered interesting responses. 54.9 per cent of the respondents stated that the lockdown was successful because the public understood the need for the same and cooperated willingly.
It was also found that IAS officers came across as highly motivated, placing public service commitment above personal risk as 72 per cent of serving officers felt the refusal to undertake assigned roles due to vulnerability and risk of exposure to infection should invite penal action.
When it came to their preferred strategy for ensuring successful pandemic management over the long term, an overwhelming majority of civil servants (85 per cent) chose mounting an effective communication campaign to secure people’s understanding and cooperation over strict enforcement of penal measures to curb people’s inherent tendencies towards indiscipline.
Majority of the respondents, 51.1 per cent, also found that the health system preparedness also increased reasonably in anticipation of a large number of infections while 27.6 per cent stated that the health system preparedness increased only marginally.
The survey also found that fear of ostracisation was found to be a major culprit in the failure of people to self-report for testing which has been an impediment to the success of the government’s test-trace-isolate strategy.
Followed by the inconvenience of quarantine options available, difficulty in accessing tests, exposure to infection from testing, time taken for testing, perception of poor treatment in hospitals and fear of loss of livelihood resulting from quarantine were some of the reasons for failure to self-report as per the respondents.
