English Moral Stories

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.

~  C.S. Lewis

 

This saying comes perfectly in the case of Asha Kandara who became RAS officer from a sweeper. 

Asha Kandara, the 40 years old woman from Jodhpur, got married in 1997, but her marriage did not work and she was abandoned by her husband in 2002. It took her a long time to overcome the pain of a broken marriage and then she decided to begin the course of her remaining education. Started with school level, she completed her graduation in 2016 and as she always wanted to become financially independent and bringing up her children on her own. So after getting inspired by her father( Rajendra Kandara who is a retired accountant at Food Corporation of India), she appeared for the examination without hesitation for a sweeper with Jodhpur Municipal Corporation and got success too. 

According to her, she has to go through many things in these years.  If she asked for anything or demanded something, she had to hear that she is not a collector and was had to go through caste discrimination and to gender bias. She had to bear many things due to her broken marriage too.

She chooses the administrative services because she wanted to help other less privileged people like her. As per Ms. Kandara, Education is the answer, education opens the door to opportunity. She collected all the stones thrown at her by the people and built a bridge with them.

Although she had a job and a source of regular income but she didn’t stop herself at that and wanted to achieve more in life in order to walk gracefully and to give her children a better life. 

 So she made up her mind to become an officer, She applied for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) but did not fit in the age criteria. But she was eligible for RAS and appeared for the same in 2018 and had to wait a long time for her result because of Covid-19. 

The results of Rajasthan Administrative Services 2018 (RAS-2018) were finally announced on July 14, 2021, her name was in its merit list. Kandara’s success is the result of her hard work during tough times in her life. As an achiever, she was made to sit beside the two mayors of the city who felicitated her and wished her to be in an administrative role in the same organisation she worked as a sweeper. 

Her journey is truly an inspiration for many women out there who are battling to live a better and honoured life in this society.

“Self-belief and hard work always earn you success.” 

This is proven in the case of Sreedhanya, a 28 years old woman from the Kurichiya tribe.

Honoured to share the story of Shreedhanya from a very poor background, beating all the odds and coming out with great success.

Sreedhanya, belonging to Wayanad, Kerala, is the first tribal woman from Kerala who has not only cleared the UPSC exam but also secured the 410th rank in her third attempt in the year 2019.

Sreedhanya Suresh, daughter of daily wage labourers Suresh and Kamala, sells bows and arrows in a local market. Since childhood, She never had access to the basic amenities or a proper house. A dripping roof and even clothes rallied instead of walls in the house do not restrain Sreedhanya from her being a good student during her schooldays. Sreedhanya and her three siblings were taken care of by her parents who mainly depended on the MNREGA scheme to make ends meet and lived in an unfinished house.

Despite all the difficulties and poverty, education remained a priority for her and this proved fruitful for the whole poor family. Sreedhanya had moved to Kozhikode to pursue her graduation in Zoology from St Joseph’s College, and then she did post-graduation from Calicut University.

After her studies, she started working as a clerk at Kerala’s Scheduled Tribes Development Department. And after that, she worked as a warden at an Adivasi hostel in Wayanad, where she got a chance to speak with Wayanad Collector Sreeram Samashiva Rao who pushed her to write the civil service exam. So she moved to Thiruvananthapuram for civil services coaching.

Sreedhanya was later selected for a face-to-face interview, which meant she had to travel to Delhi which wasn’t financially possible for her family but with the help of her great friends, who pooled in Rs. 40,000, so she could attend the interview.

Sreedhanya now wishes to inspire members of her tribal community too to aspire to become civil servants. In an interview, She said that 

” She is from the most backward district in the state. There are no tribal IAS officers from there even though there is a considerably large tribal population. The number of candidates appearing for the civil service exam from Wayanad in general and tribal communities in the district, in particular, is very low. So she hopes this would urge more people to come forward.”

Sreedhanya’s hard work & commitments have made her dream come true. We congratulate Sreedhanya and her family and wish her great triumph in her chosen career.