We have read stories of grit and determination when one had to get over poverty, lack of resources and various other hurdles to prepare and clear UPSC examination and achieve their dream of getting into civil services. But today we’ll talk about the story of an IAS officer who even had to fight the narrow societal thinking of being born as a girl and her family’s oppression to emerge victorious in her journey.
Life wasn’t easy for IAS officer Ms. Sweta Agarwal of 2016 batch from the beginning, but she chose to be unfazed with whatever came her way and stuck to her goal, which eventually brought her success.
RELATIVES’ OPPRESSION
In the 21 st century, when one would think gender inequality has come to an end, Ms. Agarwal’s joint family of 28 members was extremely disappointed when she was born. They wished for a boy to “continue their family’s legacy”. Barring her parents, no one was happy and when the officer’s father decided to get her admitted into a good English medium school, all hell broke loose in the family.
“My parents had grown up with the inferiority complex of not being able to communicate in English, although I often told them it didn’t matter. They were adamant that I shouldn’t face the lack of opportunities they did. When the news that they wanted to admit me to a convent school spread within the family, they faced flak and had to fight back,” she says.
Her father worked as daily wage worker to collect money and pay for her school fees, and eventually started working at a grocer’s shop to earn for her studies, further. By the time she finished with her school, the family’s financial condition had improved but her relatives’ mentality had not. Ms. Agarwal wanted to study further and shifted to Delhi for graduation, a decision which was again opposed by the relatives but her parents stood for her.
With a first class degree in Economics from the prestigious St Xavier’s College, she moved on to complete her post-graduation, did an MBA and worked for an MNC. She was the first graduate in her house.
CHILDHOOD DREAM
Ms. Agarwal was always fascinated by the khaki-donning officers. Since she was little, she wished to become a police officer so she could fight crime and put miscreants behind bars.
However, once on a visit to government office when she was young, she realized how the bureaucratic red tape was exhausting to the layman. Her file was transferred from one table to another with no respite and she swore to become DM one day to do away with this practice and laid back behavior of the authorities.
MARRIAGE PRESSURE
She quit her job, returned to her town and started preparing for UPSC examinations but the pressure to get her married started looming on her parents.
“I was in a terrible mental state. I couldn’t study. When I decided not to write the prelims, my parents encouraged me. They told me to give it a shot as it would give me an idea of how the paper works.”She shifted in a 1BHK flat in Kolkata and began with her preparation.
To those asking her to settle, she would say,“I can get married after 32, but I won’t be eligible to write this exam after 32.”
THREE SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS
In her first attempt in 2014, Ms. Agarwal cracked the exam with AIR-497 which could get her Indian Revenue Service but she wanted to give another try.
Her second attempt in 2015 secured her AIR-141, which meant that she could fulfill her childhood dream of becoming an IPS officer and donning a khaki uniform. She was happy but had her eyes set on IAS. Therefore, she decided to give another attempt.
On 10 th May 2016, Ms. Agarwal was boarding a flight with her squad during her IPS training when she received a phone call, “All that my friend said was, ‘Sweta, AIR-19.’ I thought my heart would burst. After five years of struggling, I had attained my dream. I put him on hold, called my parents and mentors to give them the good news. I was the state topper of West Bengal. It was almost after a decade that a candidate from the state was among the top 20,” she said, beaming with pride.
Ms. Agarwal is one of those rare gems that greeted victory at every door she passed through. For her parents though, this was the moment they had waited for patiently.
