By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: For the very first time, more than 50 Muslims have made it to the final list of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations.
Continuing its legacy of providing quality coaching to students, 16 students at Zakat Foundation of India and 27 students from Jamia Millia Islamia Residential Coaching Academy made their entry into the civil services.
“A total of 43 students were preparing for UPSC-2016. Arif Ahsan (74) and Dr Syed Fakhruddin Hamid (86) feature among the top 100. Of thel 16, six are from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Uttar Pradesh, one from Bihar, one from Rajasthan, one from Karnataka, two from Kerala and three from Jharkhand.
“Above all, I am very happy that it is for the first time after independence that such a huge number of Muslims have made their entry to the civil services. It feels so good that community is progressing. We should appreciate and encourage more Muslim boys and girls to appear in the civil service examinations and other competitive examinations,” Zafar Mahmood founder of Zakat India Foundation told TwoCircles.net.
27 students from Jamia Millia Islamia Residential Coaching Academy (Centre for Coaching and Career Planning) has also made it to the final list. Importantly, 9 out of 27 are womens. A total of five have made it to the IAS and two to IPS out of selected 27.
“We had started this academy in 2010 and since then our efforts have resulted in 93 civil servants. It is all the result of 700 hours of classes and dedicated faculty of the universities and cooperation and hard work of students,” Professor Saima Saeed, Deputy Media Coordinator told TCN. Every year, the residential coaching academy (Centre for Coaching and Career Planning) at Jamia Millia Islamia invites application for an intake capacity of 200 candidates (150 boys and 50 girls) for free coaching along with hostel facility from those belonging to the categories of Minorities, SCs., STs. and women who are desirous of appearing in Civil Services preliminary-cum-mains.
Maulana Azad National Urdu University and Jamia Hamdard are yet to finalize the list of number of students, who have qualified UPSC exam from its coaching programme, whereas Aligarh Muslim University residential academy drew blank. “Eight students from our academy appeared in mains and one appeared in interview, but unfortunately he couldn’t make it to the final list,” said Prof. Md. Kalimuddin Ahmad, Director, AMU Residential Coaching Academy.
Bilal Mohiud Din Bhat, a resident of Haripora in Handwara, Kashmir bagged tenth rank, the highest among Muslims. Along with Bilal, nine Muslims have made it to the top 100 ranks. Those in top 50 include: Muzammil Khan (22), Sheikh Tanveer Asif (25), Hamna Mariyam (28), Zaffar Iqbal (39) and Rizwanbasha Shaikh (48). Seventeen Muslims feature in the Top 500.
The selected UPSC candidates are recommended for various government posts which include Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and several other allied services.
The final tally of Muslims who clear the UPSC has hovered in the range of 30-40 for the past few years. Last year, 39 Muslims had cleared the exams, with Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan of Kashmir bagging the second rank. In 2015, 38 Muslims had cleared the exams, while the number stood at 30 in 2013 and 34 in 2014.
Although Muslims comprise 13.4% of total population, they are dismally represented in the top government services, often due to lack of education and unavailability of resources. They are roughly 2% in the civil services.