It is a foregone conclusion that 99.99 percent of the 9 lakh+ candidates who apply for the UPSC Civil Services Examination won’t become career bureaucrats, let alone IAS officers. Yet, why does the prospect of clearing this examination attract some of the best talent that India has got to offer?
It would have been understandable in a pre-liberal India when the state occupied the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy, to co-opt with it and become its agent. But in the 21st century India, which on the way to become ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, does it really make any sense for the youth to waste away their most productive years of their life, in preparing for what is at best, a shot in the dark?
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In light of these questions, this article grapples with the cognitive and cathectic motivations driving around 9 lakh+ ‘aspirants’ of the UPSC. Referring to these candidates as aspirants may itself be paradoxical. Many sane voices, including some within the government, feel that preparing for government exams may not be a worthwhile pursuit. In fact, for some commenters, it underscores a ‘poverty of aspiration’.
Be that as it may, our primary intention is to have a nuanced understanding of what motivates them to forgo an opportunity of successful careers elsewhere to pursue this exam. It is most likely these aspirants would have been working in the private sector had they not decided to take the UPSC plunge.
Economically speaking, the payoff in a best case situation is a stable and average paying job, while the risk in the worst case situation is a heavy cost which takes an even harder effort to recover. In an economy where the role of the private sector is booming to knock the public sector off its commanding perch, does a Government job still need to be placed at such a higher pedestal than several lucrative career options in the private sector?
The Instrumental Factors
It is nobody’s argument that the folks who take up this arduous preparation are all driven to do so by factors such as unemployment, lack of direction etc. A good number of candidates do possess the aptitude and motivation required to be civil servants of the finest quality.
Preparing for a career in bureaucracy requires supreme intellectual fitness, discipline and sacrifice. Several candidates even resigned from their high-paying jobs to pursue this ambition. A good chunk of candidates do SWOT, or some such analyses, before diving in to prepare full time.
But the bulk of the population is mostly guided by decisions made in haste and in the spur of the moment. Some factors, such as perceived inability to find a gainful occupation, too have an important role in tipping the scales in favor of full time civil service preparation. Therefore, it would be necessary to deconstruct the decision matrix of an aspirant.
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On the instrumental side, factors such as power, prestige, and job security are crucial determinants. The discretionary power of civil servants has been reduced to a large extent, thanks to technology. With e-governance, the leeway for civil servants to exercise discretionary powers has been circumscribed and curtailed to a large extent.
Yet, there seems to be greater gravitation towards services such as the IAS and the IPS, which still carry a lot of discretionary powers. The attraction for these two services, along with the IFS is evident in the order of preference given by candidates in their Detailed Application Form. It is almost invariable that candidates who attend the interview (personality test) after clearing the written phases choose to opt for these services as their top priority.
While rationality has not been completely lost due to the presence of these instrumental factors, it is to be noted that the primary motivations for most candidates do not emanate from this logical reasoning. Rather, such decisions are mostly grounded in impulsion.
The Affective Motivation for UPSC: A Primary Factor
Perhaps the most important lesson for policymakers is that their decisions should be rooted in evidence and not personal preferences. However, it is almost paradoxical that those who aspire to become policymakers in the future decide their career and future based on emotional motivations. The bulk of them dream of becoming something- an IAS officer, rather than dream of doing something.
These dreams are further stoked by the glorified stories of people who braved immense hardships and finally cracked the exam. Some such stories have also entered popular memory through movies such as ‘12thFail’, ‘Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana’, and the like. But this does not end here.
One should never discount the role of the coaching industry in selling this dream to innocent students and their parents. These businesses generally use the success stories of those who have cleared the exam to lure students to enroll in their expensive programs.
The prospective admissions are initially made to become overwhelmed with the vastness of the syllabus and the difficulty of the exam. This is when the prospective student comes to believe that a particular program offered by a particular coaching center is absolutely necessary for cracking this examination.
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That most of the aspirants make such decisions based on the stories of outliers and not based on the specific contexts and facts of their lives creates a dissonance that hinders not only their chances of succeeding in the exam but also effectively traps them in a cycle of exam writing until their attempts are exhausted. The series of Annual Reports released by the UPSC shows a trend of declining number of selections as the number of attempts increases.
Another, but not totally unrelated problem with the mindset of most candidates of the UPSC is the propensity to become victims of the ‘Sunk Cost Fallacy’. This is especially true for those aspirants who have given multiple attempts and may have even succeeded in clearing the preliminary ad written phases of the exam.
Not having a proper exit strategy also fuels this unending cycle of writing examinations and, in effect, contributes to wasting away the youth potential of India. Such affective motivations foreshadowing the instrumental ones are to be treated as a policy challenge, for it impacts the lives and livelihoods of lakhs of candidates and their families.
Is there a right motivation for UPSC?
Whether one is motivated by the instrumental factors or the affective ones, or both, it is the written answers on the papers that determine the selection. Viktor Frankel in his classic, ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, underscores the importance of ‘the purpose’ in any human endeavor. Understanding the episteme of a candidate’s motivation may help her judge her abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
This might not only help in exam preparation, but also can increase the general well-being of millions. Taking the help of a career counselor before making this decision may save years of time, effort, and cost. Thus, there is a dire need to institutionalize counselling services within the university ecosystem in India.
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Having a Plan B is equally crucial. After all, even doing everything right may not be enough to make the cut. This is not the candidate’s fault, but the system has a ‘problem of plenty’ to choose from. Therefore, it would be prudent to be ‘market-ready’ by investing in skills that can be transferred from the years of grind that these candidates undergo.
In fact, having the confidence and security of the Plan B can have latent positive effects of exam performance too. The preparation equips candidates with a tremendous amount of knowledge for policymaking in India. Utilizing this knowledge base along with necessary skills will provide a solid exit option for candidates, should their attempts tank.
Public policy and government consulting are some of the sunrise sectors in which a fulfilling career path can be carved out for individuals from this talent pool. ’Viksit Bharat needs a Viksit Bureaucracy’. But not everyone can become a career bureaucrat. But a ‘Viksit Youth’ can contribute to realizing the dream of a developed India through numerous channels.
About the author: Srinidhi S Parvatikar is a Chanakya Fellow in Social Sciences 2023-24. His primary interests are public policy and social impact. He can be found on LinkedIn here.
