The Personnel Ministry has begun a nationwide series of surveys and seminars to find what hinders the entry of women in the Central services and the obstacles they face in rising to the higher decision-making posts.

The Ministry has hinted there might be policy changes aimed at cracking the ceiling which keeps women down, once the surveys among women employees and the seminars are over.

There are too few women at the higher levels in government services. According to a very rough estimate, women make up only five per cent of the employees in the more sought after Group A services. But a more detailed analysis of around 20 Central civil services -- consisting of about 40 lakh employees -- is being carried out.

The Ministry has set up a Working Group headed by an additional secretary in the Department ofAdministrative Reforms to coordinate the project, which is being implemented with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Thanks to the UNDP connection, nine officers drawn from different ministries have been to the United States for a three-week fellowship on the gender issue. The nine officers were expected to lead a series of seminars, which will gauge opinion, suggest remedies, and `sensitise' senior officers about the problems women employees face. In each region the seminar is supposed to follow an opinion poll of women employees.

So far, the seminars have been held in Jaipur, Pune, Bhopal, Mysore and Calcutta, tapping the opinion of women employees -- and people from other walks of life -- posted in several states in each region.

Civil service probationers at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie have already been polled. The group of nine which went on the UNDP fellowship has already submitted broad recommendations. These includechanges in the recruitment rules to ensure greater representation for women in the services, but the general mood is against gender-based reservations.

The group has also called for a harassment-free work environment, empowerment of women through appropriate training, wider publicity to tell women about the opportunities in civil services and a long-term policy of incentives for educating the girl child.