NAC calls for human resource departments at ministries dealing with social programmes

NEW DELHI: A working group of the Sonia-Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has called for the creation of dedicated human resource departments at central ministries dealing with social programmes to ensure better delivery of the government’s flagship schemes.

The working group has suggested that the proposed HR wings should be entrusted with the responsibility of framing guidelines for recruitment and training of frontline workers, besides laying down key performance indicators to assess the performance of individuals.

As of now, recruitment of frontline workers is a mere vacancy-filling exercise, with selection committees comprising only elected representatives, who do not enjoy complete autonomy.

“We have proposed setting up of dedicated human resource departments in the identified ministries. These departments will come up with a human resource policy with focus on processes related to recruitment, training, assessments, incentives, promotions, career development, deployment and transfers of field functionaries,” a senior official involved in the exercise told ET.

The working group has also suggested making it mandatory for the interview panels constituted to recruit frontline workers to have sector specialists on board to ensure fairness and transparency in the selection process.

“Currently, there is lack of absolute autonomy in the selection process and this needs to be changed to ensure that right people get the right job,” the official said. The working group said in its recommendations to the government that this can be done by clearly laying down the constitution of the interview panels, “necessarily comprising sector specialists and specialists in human resources with knowledge of observation and evaluation techniques, along with concerned programmeofficers.”

The government is planning to test the proposal on pilot basis at the ministries of health and family welfare, panchayati raj, women and child development, and agriculture.The move comes amid rising demand for development professionals to run social programmes. While the availability of such professionals remains limited, very few among those available take up jobs in rural areas because of lack of incentives. According to some estimates, 7-10 million frontline workers are required for quality delivery of the government’s flagship social programmes over the next 10 years.