Women candidates get exam fee exemption

The fair sex never had it so good as far as government recruitment policies are concerned.

The latest instance being the decision to exempt women candidates from payment of fees for appearing in competitive examinations.

The Government has said women candidates need not pay fees in competitive examinations for direct recruitment, department competitive examinations and interview conducted by Union Public Service Commission and Staff Selection Commission.

Recently, the government had written to the secretaries of all ministries and departments at the Centre, UPSC and Staff Selection Commission to instruct all appointing authorities to scrupulously ensure better representation of women in Central government jobs.

In a series of guidelines, it said the composition of selection committees should be such which ensures women's representation. It should be mandatory to have one woman member in the selection boards for making recruitment of 10 or more vacancies and women candidates are expected to be available for the posts.

With a view to monitoring the trend in recruitment of women, all ministries and departments are requested to submit a consolidated report on the total number of posts and employees latest by August 31.