At 9 pm on Saturday evening, Rashika, a Joint Secretary, was still engrossed in her work in her office. Her husband, Vikram, is an executive in an MNC and frequently out of town in connection with his work. Their two children aged 5 and 3 are looked after by their domestic helper. At 9:30 pm her superior, Mr. Suresh calls her and asks her to prepare a detailed note on an important matter to be discussed in a meeting in the Ministry. She realises that she will have to work on Sunday to finish the additional task given by her superior. She reflects on how she had looked forward to the posting and had worked long hours for months to achieve it, he had kept the welfare of people uppermost in discharging her duties. She feels that she has not done enough Justice to her family and she has not fulfilled her duties in discharging essential social obligations. Even as recently as last month she had to leave her sick child in the nanny’s care as she had to work in the office. Now, she feels that she must draw a line, beyond which her personal life should take precedence over her professional responsibilities. She thinks that there should be reasonable limits to the work ethics such as punctuality, hard work, dedication to duty and selfless service.(a) Discuss the ethical issue involved in this case.(b) Briefly describe at least four laws that have been enacted by the Government with respect to providing a healthy, safe and equitable working environment for women.(c) Imagine you are in a similar situation. What suggestions would you make to mitigate such working conditions?
What the examiner wants
In this Public-Service Work–Life Dilemma case (At 9 pm on Saturday evening, Rashika, a Joint Secretary, was still engrossed in her work in her office.…), separate facts/constraints from the value conflict and resolve the explicit asks in order: Discuss the ethical issue involved in this case.; then Briefly describe at least four laws that have been enacted by the Government with respect…; then Imagine you are in a similar situation. What suggestions would you make to mitigate such…. Defend the preferred option against realistic alternatives.
Demand-wise check
- 1Discuss the ethical issue involved in this case≈65 words
- 2Briefly describe at least four laws that have been enacted by the Government with respect to providing a healthy, safe and equitable working environment for women≈65 words
- 3Imagine you are in a similar situation. What suggestions would you make to mitigate such working conditions?≈65 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Over-writing ‘Discuss the ethical issue involved in this case.’ while reducing ‘Briefly describe at least four laws that have been enacted by the Government with…’ to a token paragraph
- Naming values without testing each feasible option for legality, affected stakeholders, consequences, implementation risk and reversibility
Value addition
- Public-Service Work–Life Dilemma: stakeholder map beside a 4-column option matrix — option | legality/ethics | consequences | mitigation
→ Draw it in the body, next to the point it supports.
Official source anchors
These are authoritative sources selected for this exact PYQ. Where a card is an official-domain anchor rather than a fact-level citation, verify the precise provision, definition or data point on the linked source before using it.
Next: plan for one minute, write it in 14 minutes, then get it checked.