With women making headlines after the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021 came out, with the top three spots going to them, a lone woman from Jammu is now in news for a different reason. It has emerged that the woman, Shivani Jerngal, is the only woman from Jammu and Kashmir to have cleared the prestigious exam this year. She is from a remote border village called Kunjwani in Jammu. She along with five other people from J&K made it to the final list of UPSC 2021.
Considering Shivani comes from a remote village from a Union Territory that is most of the time under a disturbed situation, her emerging as an icon can provide the much-needed motivation to the youth of the region to aim high.
EDUCATION
Shivani comes from Kunjwani, an extreme border village in Jammu. She completed her schooling at Presentation Convent School after which she moved to Delhi for her graduation. She pursued B-Tech from Delhi Technological University in Electronics and Communication. After completing graduation, she made up her mind to appear for UPSC rather than going into the private sector.
In an interview with the media, she said “I started my UPSC preparation journey in 2020 and joined a couple of coaching centres mostly for test series.” She, however, preferred self-studies over coaching classes as she could plan her studies according to her own will and convenience.
COVID LOCKDOWN
The Covid lockdown came as a setback for Shivani just like for other people around the world. It started during her preparation due to which she had to return to her hometown. “Though there was no time wasted on travel, studying from home could be distracting and mentally exhausting,” Shivani said.
Not only this, the absence of like-minded people who could help in her preparation was another point that affected her preparation. She appeared for the first time in 2020 and failed to crack the exam. This was a setback for her, but she took it in a positive way and started preparing with double the efforts.
While talking to the media, she said “Making continuous and whole-hearted efforts is the key. Pay attention to your mental health. Don’t let the failures take a toll on you.”
She appeared again and managed to crack the exam this year with an All India Rank (AIR) 300. She said she wasn’t sure that she would make it to the final list as the written exam didn’t go that well. She had even started her preparation for the next prelim exam and was busy studying the night before the results were announced.
As a bureaucrat, she wants to reduce the inaccessibility between the common people and the administration and wants to listen to and work for the people of the country.
OTHER ASPIRANTS
Apart from Shivani, Parth Gupta from Trikuta Nagar emerged as Jammu’s topper with AIR 72. Asrar Ahmad Kichloo from Bhaderwah cleared the exam with AIR 287. Dwarka Gandhi of Bishnah secured AIR 412, Mohd Shabir of Poonch got AIR 419 and Anjeet Singh of Nagni Kahara, Thathri, Doda got AIR 530. Anwar Hussain from Kargil in Ladakh secured AIR 600.
