For IAS officer Rukmani Riar, joining civil services was not just a career choice, there’s a deeper thought: to use it as a platform for social change and contribute to policy making. Her determination and will power to achieve her goal made her road to Civil Services a smooth one. She cracked CSE in her first attempt itself getting AIR 2! She is currently posted as Collector and District Magistrate of Sriganganagar, Rajasthan.
Today, Indian Masterminds brings to you the success story of this IAS officer.
BACKGROUND
Hailing from Chandigarh, Rukmani Riar cracked UPSC CSE 2011 with AIR 2 in her first attempt. Her father is a retired Deputy District Attorney of Hoshiarpur, Baljinder Singh Riar and her mother Takdeer Kaur is a homemaker.
She did her early education from Gurdaspur. Later, she joined Sacred Heart School in Dalhousie from the 4th standard. She graduated in Social Science from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
After her graduation, Ms. Riar did her Master’s in Social Science from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and was a gold medallist there.
INTERNSHIPS WITH NGO
Soon after her post-graduation, she started doing internships with different NGOs like Ashodaya in Mysore and Annapurna Mahila Mandal in Mumbai besides the Planning Commission.
This was the phase when she was exposed to underlying problems which drew her towards Civil Services.
In an interview to media, Ms. Riar says, “I joined Civil Services not merely as a career option but as a platform to create social change, to contribute towards policy making, which is essential for all social changes.”
Apart from working as an intern with NGOs, Ms. Riar also worked with the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi, under social activist Harsh Mander, to help improve urban slums like Jama Masjid and Yamuna Pushta. Soon after her internships, she started her UPSC preparation.
FIRST ATTEMPT
With her constant hard work and firm belief in herself, Ms. Riar cleared CSE in her very first attempt with AIR 2 in 2011. “I owe my success to my parents, who always stood by me, my friends and especially my teachers who guided me, shaped me and made me strong enough,” she said.
She also added: “I noticed several things about governance which I thought should be changed and there was no other option but to join the Civil Services.”
UPSC PREPARATION
While preparing by herself for the UPSC exam, Ms. Riar read newspapers on a daily basis for the interview round and attended mock sessions. She recommends aspirants to read Class 6 to 12 NCERT books.
She focused on solving the question papers of the past several years to be more confident about her exams. She went through each topic thoroughly and read relevant articles to make her preparation strong
She says that collecting good editorials that get published in daily newspapers can help in the essay paper immensely.
Ms. Riar chose Sociology and Political Science as her optional subjects. She says that being a student of social science, it was easy for her to study both the subjects.
MESSAGE TO ASPIRANTS
“Consistency, hard work and persistence are the key to success. If I can do it, then anybody else can,” she said, in a message to young UPSC aspirants.
