GS4 · UPSC Mains
You are the Head of an Agency, a special purpose vehicle, responsible for overseeing the last-mile delivery of essential services and sorting out bottlenecks and grievances of the citizens within your jurisdiction. The essential services included Maternal and infant health care, nutritional support to BPL families, drinking water availability, etc. Your agency employed a staff of 15 to carry out regular official operations and handle grievances. Since the agency dealt with complaints, there was an enormous amount of public dealing daily. Sometimes the agency officials had to work beyond office hours to finish the regular office work as public dealings took away most of the office hours. The employees were unhappy doing the extra bit as they were not paid any overtime. A few of them informally raised the issue with you, but you were helpless as the agency rules didn't allow any travel or overtime allowances. You tried taking up the matter with HQ but to no avail. The work stress gradually started showing up among the staff, they became irritable with the complainants, and at times they shouted at them. Besides rudeness, the staff's language became abusive, derogatory, and sometimes casteist. You could notice that there were 4 of them in particular who were getting very abusive and discriminatory while handling grievances. As the Head, you warned them, but there was no marked change in their work attitude. To compound your problem, some of the villagers, through their Sarpanch, raised the issue of rude, disrespectful, and discriminatory behavior with your HQ. The HQ immediately instructed you to take action and create a respectful and dignified workspace. (a) What are the issues involved in the above case? (b) What are the action options available to you? (c) Examine each of the options and identify your chosen course of action (d) What do you understand by dignity? Distinguish between human and social dignity? Identify the common dignity violations that one notices in government departments. (Answer in 250 words)
GS4 · Case studies on the above issues GS4 · Attitude — content, structure, function; influence & relation with thought & behaviour; moral & political attitudes; social influence & persuasion
| Topper | Rank | Source | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nausheen | AIR 9 | Nextias | p.37 |
| K N Chandana Jahnavi | AIR 50 | Nextias | p.37 |
| Nidhi Goyal | AIR 91 | Nextias | p.37 |
| Animesh Jain | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| Animesh Jain | — | UnlockIAS | p.37 |
| ANUSHKA KARNWAL | — | NextIAS | p.46 |
| Sameer Goel | — | NextIAS | p.36 |
| NAZIA PARWEEN | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| Nazish Umar Ansari | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| Ankit Agrawal | — | NextIAS | p.36 |
| Arfa Usmani | — | NextIAS | p.34 |
| Mohit Gupta | — | NextIAS | p.48 |
| SYED ADEEL MOHSIN | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| DEEPESH GAUR | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| JASWANT MALIK | — | NextIAS | p.33 |
| Muhammed Swalah T A | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| Muhammed Swalah T A | — | NextIAS | p.37 |
| Abhishek Singh | — | Nextias | p.28 |