Major tribes still dominate list of civil servants in state

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Dec. 29: Despite fears by most of the so-called advanced tribes in Nagaland about their decreasing numbers in the much sought-after government jobs, data indicates that the major tribes are still way ahead of the rest among the number of civil servants in the state.
According to a document in possession of Eastern Mirror, the list of civil servants of various cadres i.e., the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Nagaland Civil Service (NCS) and the Nagaland Secretariat Service (NSS) and ex-cadres totals to 734.
The ex-cadres are those that have been absorbed from other services especially Central services; the posts normally cease to exist after the incumbent retires.
Out of the total only three major tribes have more than 100 civil servants from their respective tribes. The highest are the Ao Naga with 147 personnel, the Lotha Naga 120 and the Angami Naga with 104.
The three tribes total at 371, which is still nine more than the combined total of the other 15 tribes totalling at 362. The three tribes combined also had a total of 15 IAS officers of which 10 are Ao Naga.
Among reserved categories the so-called backward tribes, the Chakesang Naga tops the list with a total of 75 civil servants. It is also the exception of the group with the total number of civil servants more than one of the advanced tribes: the tribe has a total that is 17 more than the Sumi Naga.
Among the remaining backward tribes excluding the Chakhesang Naga, the Sangtam Naga has the highest number of personnel with 41 officers.
The eastern group of tribes i.e., the Sangtam, Konyak, Phom, Chang, Khiamniungan and the Yimchunger have a combined total of 145 personnel.
At the bottom of the list are the non-Naga tribes and indigenous inhabitants of the state. The Garo and the Mikir have no civil servants in any of the cadres while the Kachari have one NSS cadre and the Kuki have a total of 10.
There are no personnel from any of the non-tribal indigenous inhabitants of the state in the entire list.
Except for the tribe-wise data for the civil servants available, no consolidated data is available with the government at present. This may indicate a different picture in other departments under the state government of Nagaland.
Moreover due to the absence of any tribe census in the state, comparative analysis on the ratio of government job holders-to-population of the respective tribes is currently not possible unless a district census is taken into consideration according to Census 2011.
However, a source from the government told Eastern Mirror that although Census 2011 was meticulously supervised in order to get accurate data, some districts still may have inflated the numbers.