15 Oct  Karamyogi, and Empathy 

Mission Karmayogi

The topic is based on Mission Karmayogi. The article talks about how Mission Karmayogi impacts India’s Social and Economic development. 

Prelims: social and economic development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains GS II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

GS  IV: Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public Administration

 What’s the ongoing story- 

Praveen Pardeshi writes: Mission Karmayogi is about creating a civil service with domain, technological competencies, and empathy.

 What is the Mission Karmayogi?

About:

• “Mission Karmayogi “ a new capacity-building program was launched by the central government of India in 2020.
• It is a New National Architecture for Civil Services Capacity Building.
•  This is a National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) scheme for 46 lakhs of civil servants including officers and employees at all levels.
•  The goal of this scheme is to make a future-ready civil service with the right attitude, skills, and knowledge, aligned with the vision of New India.

Pic: Karmayogi Mission

 Mission Karmayogi has the following six pillars 

• Policy Framework,
• Institutional Framework,
• Competency Framework,
• Digital Learning Framework (Integrated Government Online Training Karmayogi Platform (iGOT-Karmayogi),
• electronic Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS), and
• Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

The idea behind the scheme

• Civil services play a very important role in the Indian administration.
• Any change that has been taken to improve the capacity building of civil services will be a step towards better governance.

 Steps to be taken to build the capacity of civil services:

• Associating the transformation of work culture
• Strengthening public institutions
• Inclusion  of modern technology

The governing body of the mission  

The Public Human Resource Council under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India is the governing body of the Mission Karmayogi. 

The  council also included other members as follows :

• Union Ministers
• Chief Ministers
• Eminent public HR practitioners
• Thinkers
• Global thought leaders and
• Public Service functionaries

The  institutions which help in implementing the Mission Karmayogi:

1. Prime Minister’s Public Human Resources (HR) Council
2. Capacity Building Commission
3. Special Purpose Vehicle for owning and operating the digital assets and the technological platform for online training
4. Coordination Unit headed by the Cabinet Secretary

What will be the functions of various proposed bodies:

Capacity Building Commission:

• To aid the PM Public Human Resources Council in rectifying the Annual Capacity Building Plans.
• To operate functional supervision over all Central Training Institutions working with civil services capacity building.
• To set up shared learning resources, comprising internal and external faculty and resource centers.
• Organize and supervise the implementation of the Capacity Building Plans with the stakeholder Departments.
• To lay down the norms for common mid-career training programs across all civil services.

A wholly owned Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV):

• It comes under  Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013.
• It is a  “not-for-profit” company.
• The iGOT-Karmayogi platform will own and manage it.

The SPV is to create and engage the content, market place and manage key business services of the iGOT-Karmayogi platform, relating to content validation, independent proctored assessments, and measuring the data availability.

• It has all Intellectual Property Rights on behalf of the Government of India.

Public Human Resources Council:

• It consists of some selected Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, eminent public HR practitioners, thinkers, global thought leaders, and Public Service functionaries under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.
• It acts as the apex body for providing tactical direction to the quest for Civil Services Reform and capacity building.

 How does it-Karmayogi work?

• This capacity-building program was delivered through an Integrated Government Online Training or iGOT-Karmayogi digital platform,
• The digital platform will be equipped with content to learn from global best practices rooted in “Indian ethos”
• This platform will work as a launchpad for the National Programme for NPCSCB, which will empower a   “comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at the individual, institutional and process levels for efficient public service delivery”.
•  The officers will be assessed on the basis of the course they have opted for throughout their careers to improve their skills.
• An online database will be maintained on what courses they have completed, their performance, an area where their expertise lies, etc.
• For any future vacancy or an officer has been considered by an appointing authority, then the authority can simply go through their training maintained database.

What are the challenges?

• The visible poor interest in existing civil services training programmers’ has disturbed the administrative reform committees over the past years.
• The out-of-the-date rules and procedures restrict civil servants from performing effectively
• Lack of adequate transparency and accountability procedures

Way forward

• With time, when democracies mature, elected representatives tend to play a more proactive role in policymaking. 
  • It is, therefore, required that elected representatives are able to understand the nuances of policymaking.
• The program is to build the capability to visualize the future and work towards realizing it. 

Conclusion

• Though it was a new move by the government, it is also a fact that bureaucratic sloth is only one side of the coin.
• The political leaders, who are equally guilty have manifested themselves in transfers which must be addressed too.

What is Empathy?

•  It is the ability of a person to be aware of, understand, and appreciate the feelings and thoughts of another person.
•  It means, being empathic, is being able to “emotionally read ” another person
• It is an ability to empathize that is directly dependent on one’s ability to feel another person’s feelings and identify them.

How empathy is different from sympathy?

Sympathy

• When a person is having sympathy that implies that the person is being aware of another person’s emotional struggles and offering support and reassurance.
•  A sympatric feeling is a statement of care for another person.
• In other words, sympathy implies a deeper, more intimate level of concern than pity, a straightforward expression of grief.
• Sympathy puts one’s attention on awareness, empathy on experience, and compassion on actions.
• However, empathy implies understanding how others are feeling.

Why empathy is important for a Civil servant 

• Empathy is a sense of kinship and concern for others which is why it empowers civil servants to feel connected and relatable to their problems.
• This is so because of the empathy and concern that civil servants portray their character as it is all about showing interest in the welfare of human beings.
• Sometimes it becomes difficult for a civil servant to survive in absence of empathy because an empathetic character brings outs some sort of belongingness in the citizens.

Sources: 

The Indian Express

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