Civil Services Exam: Why more women are securing top slots now

In this Times Special presentation, we look at the recent results of the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2022, in which the top four slots were taken by women. Ishita Kishore bagged the top slot, continuing the trend seen over the past few years of women coming out on top.To explain the numbers, and what it means in terms of women representation in the Civil Services, we have with us Bharti Jain, a senior editor with the Times of India.Considered one of the toughest exams in India, the Civil Services Exam sees around 11 lakh applicants seeking jobs in the civil services of the country.This is the second year in a row that the top three slots have gone to women. It is also a repeat of the performance of the Civil Services Exam of 2014. That year too, female candidates outshone men with the top four ranks, leaving only the fifth slot for the male topper.From 2011 to 2022 a total of 6 women have secured Rank 1 in UPSC.But does this trend also reflect in the total number of women getting placed in the Civil Services?An analysis of the top 20 positions as well as data from previous years shows that the number of successful women candidates has gone up in recent years. As Bharti says in this Deep Dive, the number of successful women candidates has risen from around 23.7 percent of the recommended candidates in 2018 to 34 per cent in 2022.It is the first time that more than one third of the recommended candidates are women, which is certainly a very positive change. Bharti says that authorities are reckoning that maybe in a few years, this will go up to 50 per cent.An interesting aspect that has also emerged from the data analysed by the government is that the number of those applying for the UPSC and those actually taking the examination is very different.For instance, in 2022, only 50.5 per cent of the candidates who applied for the Civil Services Exam appeared. This means that a staggering 49.5 percent who applied never bothered to appear even in the preliminary exam, which is the first stage of the Civil Services Exam.In 2020, this number was 53.6 percent of candidates who did not appear and in 2018, it was 52.6 percent of the candidates who didn’t take the exam after applying for it.Incidentally, the number of applicants for the UPSC exam in 2022 was 11.5 lakh, while it was 11 lakh for the year 2021, 10.5 lakh for 2020 and 8 lakh for 2019. Audio production: Prateek Kapoor