In India, a government employee’s transfer is supposed to be an administrative decision. Increasingly, however, it has acquired the characteristics of an industry—one in which political influence, personal networks and bureaucratic discretion determine who goes where, who stays where and who escapes a difficult posting. What should be a routine instrument of public administration has, in many states, become a source of patronage, pressure and allegations of money-making.

When teachers, doctors, engineers and other officials are moved for reasons unrelated to public interest, the ultimate victim is often the citizen with the least political influence—the villager in a remote district, the tribal family seeking treatment or the child in an understaffed school.

This is why Himachal Pradesh’s latest attempt to tighten its transfer regime deserves attention beyond the state. The government has amended its 2013 Transfer Policy to ensure that employees posted in tribal, hard and difficult areas actually complete the prescribed three-year tenure. It has also clarified that intermittent additional-charge service will not count towards the requirement.

Himachal is not an isolated case. Across India, states have adopted transfer policies to regulate tenure and prevent arbitrary movement. Yet rules alone have not eliminated political interference.

The central problem is the gap between policy and practice. A transfer can reward an obedient employee, punish an inconvenient officer or satisfy a constituency demand. Once such discretion becomes institutionalised, formal policy becomes little more than a framework around an informal marketplace of influence.

This is particularly damaging in education and healthcare. Teachers and doctors are not interchangeable pieces on a chessboard. A teacher........

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