Above the 15%, below the top: SCs across Groups A, B and C

What this shows

How many employees in each group of Central Government posts are SCs, as a number and a share, as on 1 January 2024, beside the 15% reserved for SCs in direct recruitment by open competition.

What it does not show: Whether reservation was applied in any recruitment: the 15% applies to direct recruitment by open competition, not to every group’s whole strength, and the table counts employees in post, not vacancies.

Sources

Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training, Annual Report 2024-25, Chapter 4, Reservation in the Central Government Services, Para 4.8, data as on 1 January 2024. Primary source.
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3321: SC ST AND OBC IN HIGHER POSTS OF OFFICERS, dated 16 Mar 2011. Primary source.
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 549: REPRESENTATION OF OBC SC ST IN HIGHER OFFICERS, dated 26 Nov 2014. Primary source.
Ministry of Personnel, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2745: SCs/STs/OBCs under-represented in Government Jobs, dated 10 Jul 2019. Primary source.
Ministry of Finance, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1794: Representations of SCs/STs/OBCs/EWSs and Differently Abled in Banks, Annexure, as on 31 January 2020, dated 2 Mar 2020. Primary source.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2221: Recruitments in PSUs, Representation of SCs, STs and OBCs in the operating CPSEs, as on 31 March 2020, dated 8 Mar 2021. Primary source.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2904: Tribal Sanitation Workers, dated 18 Mar 2025. Primary source.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 5028: Sanitation Workers, dated 1 Apr 2025. Primary source.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1521: Persistence of Manual Scavenging, dated 29 Jul 2025. Primary source.
Ministry of Railways, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1779: SC/ST Representation in Railway Vacancies, dated 30 Jul 2025. Primary source.
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3220: Low SC/ST Representation in Senior and Policy Positions, dated 11 Mar 2026. Primary source.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3453: Welfare and Profiling of Sewer and Septic Tank Workers, dated 17 Dec 2024. Primary source.
Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Census of India 2011, Primary Census Abstract: the SC share of the population. Primary source.

Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 9 Oct 2026.

Read these with the numbers

The figures cover the posts and services of the Central Government as reported to DoPT by 80 Ministries and Departments (Para 4.8). They do not cover State governments, and the chapter does not list which Ministries and Departments reported.
The 15% is the reservation for SCs in direct recruitment on an all India basis by open competition (para 4.3). It is a yardstick here, not a target for every group: recruitment to Group C and the erstwhile Group D from a locality or region follows each State or Union Territory’s SC population (para 4.4). Direct recruitment on an all India basis otherwise than by open competition reserves 16.66% for SCs (para 4.3), and promotion reserves 15% (para 4.7).
The table has no Group D row. The report speaks of “the erstwhile Group D posts” (para 4.4) but does not say, in the table, where those posts are now counted.
The table splits Group C into Safai Karamchari posts and the rest, as shown here; it does not split any other group.
The figures count employees in post on one date. They do not show vacancies, recruitment in any year, or how many SC employees were appointed against reserved posts and how many against unreserved posts.
DoPT’s Annual Report 2023-24 carries no table of SC, ST and OBC representation in its reservation chapter, so this piece cannot show a change between editions. It uses the 2024-25 report’s table alone.
The table’s heading spells it “Karamchari”; the report’s disability table on the next page spells it “Karmchari”. This piece uses the representation table’s spelling.
The 16.6% is the SC share of India’s population in Census 2011, the latest count; it is out of date and will change with Census 2027. The Census counts SCs among Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists only.
The banks, CPSEs and Railways figures come from Lok Sabha answers on different dates (31 January 2020, 31 March 2020 and 1 January 2025) and are shown beside DoPT’s 1 January 2024 figures, never as a change over time.
The CPSE table counts 919,648 regular employees in 366 CPSEs; the same answer counts 495,751 contract, casual and daily-rated workers, to whom reservation does not apply and whose caste is not counted.
The Railways answer gives one SC share for all groups (16.84%) and no split by group. Of 292,811 people recruited in the five years before the answer, 44,241 (15.11%) were SC.
Above Group A, no count is kept now: asked for SC and ST officers at Joint Secretary level and above, DoPT answered “Data in this regard is not maintained.” (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3220, answered 11 March 2026, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions). The latest count found is from 2019.
Reservation in promotion applies only “upto the lowest rung of Group A” (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3220, answered 11 March 2026, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions); there is none for OBCs (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2745, answered 10 July 2019, Ministry of Personnel).
In the banks’ table, the groups add up to 1,004,896 for employees, but the Grand Total gives 918,665. The figures are shown as the answer gives them; each group’s share uses that group’s own count.

Key terms

Group A, B and C: The groups into which Central Government civil posts are classified, Group A being the highest. The report uses them without defining them.
Erstwhile Group D: The report’s own words for posts once classed as Group D (para 4.4). Its representation table has no Group D row.
Safai Karamchari: Sanitation worker. The table counts Group C Safai Karamchari posts separately from the rest of Group C.
Direct recruitment by open competition: Recruitment on an all India basis through an open competitive selection, for which the report gives reservation of 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs (para 4.3).
SC, ST, OBC: Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, the categories the report counts.
CPSE: Central Public Sector Enterprise: a company in which the Union Government holds more than half the shares. Reservation in its posts follows DoPT’s rules, extended to CPSEs by the Department of Public Enterprises; no reservation applies to Board level posts.
NAMASTE: The National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, under which the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment profiles and validates sewer and septic tank workers.
Census 2011: The latest Census of India. It counted SCs at 16.6% of the population; Census 2027 will replace that figure.

Changelog and corrections

Version 2: Adds the banks, CPSEs and Railways from 3 Lok Sabha answers, the SC share at 15% and at the Census 2011 population share, and SC officers at Joint Secretary level and above in 2011, 2014, 2019. Version 1: DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, Para 4.8, data as on 1 January 2024.

How corrections work. Every change is listed here.

Cite this

The Dalit Project, “Above the 15%, below the top: SCs across Groups A, B and C”, version 2, data.dalitproject.org/sc-representation/, as on 9 Oct 2026.