REFORMS in the civil service job reservations that students sought, which sparked off protests on July 1, 2024, flared into a mass uprising later that month and toppled the Awami League government on August 5 that year, have worryingly remained unresolved 11 months inside the installation of the interim government. This is unfortunate of the interim government, which was installed on August 8, 2024 in the changed political context, to have put on the sidelines the very cause that made the political changeover. The government keeping to a decision of the council of advisers on January 30 set up a public administration committee to review job reservations in the civil service and in admission to educational institutions. The committee, headed by the rules division in-charge of the ministry, is reported to have met a few times, but it is yet to submit any recommendations. The committee head says that it would need more time to submit the summary, noting that it would find ways to effect the 7 per cent of public service jobs that are now reserved and to decide which authority would make decisions on the eligibility for the reservations.
But the reforms in the civil service job reservations should have so far been completed as a priority issue of the agenda of the interim government. But this has not happened as yet. And, this is disappointing. The appeals court in a verdict on July 21, 2024, when the student protests seeking reforms in the job reservations had already flared up and spread, brought down the reservations from 56 per cent to 7 per cent. The 7 per cent of job reservations include 5 per cent for the children of freedom fighters, 1 per cent for people from national minorities and 1 per cent for people with disabilities and the third gender. On October 4, 2018, the government, after a long spell of protests by the students and job-seekers, abolished all of 56 per cent of the quota 鈥� 30 per cent for descendants of freedom fighters, 10 per cent for women, 10 per cent for people from under-represented districts, 5 per cent for ethnic minorities and 1 per cent for people with physical disabilities, but only for Grade 10鈥�11 public servants. The system now in force has no jobs reserved for women, which many believe should be there, and limited reservations for disadvantaged communities, especially national minorities, which many think should be increased in the interests of fair development.
The government should, in such a situation, attend to the issue of reforms in civil service job reservations early and earnestly. And, the government should do it for not only Grade 10鈥�11 but also all public service jobs.
