As Civil Services Day is being commemorated all over the country today, Indian Masterminds takes a look at the origin and historical significance of the day, and also at some inspiring success stories of civil servants, who surprised all by their grit and determination to enter the civil services.
This special day is marked to rededicate civil servants to the cause of citizens and renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work. It also makes them reminisce about the time when they joined this prestigious fraternity.
The day was first celebrated in the year 1947, when our first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers at Metcalf House, Delhi. He commemorated the day by addressing the importance of civil servants in the country, as he referred to them as the ‘steel frame of India’.
As this day marks a special event in the life of a civil servant, we, at Indian Masterminds, bring you some highly inspiring and emotional stories of bureaucrats who faced lots of hardships on their way to the prestigious All India Service.
IRS OFFICER SURESH LAKHAVATH
We start off with the heartfelt story of IRS officer Suresh Lakhavath, who came up from a remote hamlet called Survapuram Thanda in Andhra Pradesh, and made his way into the civil services. The hamlet was so cut off from the mainstream that the majority of the children there hadn’t seen a school campus in their entire life.
At the age of five, in 1992, Suresh led the same life like all other kids of his area. He roamed around the streets, played through the day, and attended a few classes conducted by a visiting teacher under a makeshift school.
However, later, he got admission in the Hyderabad Public School through the best available tribal scholarship. He was an excellent student and cleared his schooling with flying colors. He then shifted to Delhi with his friend and got his graduation sponsored by his friend’s father. Around that time, he made plans to prepare for the UPSC exam. He cleared the exam in his first attempt and got a posting in Masabtank, right next to the tribal welfare office in Hyderabad, where he slept and made rounds to avail scholarship money.
FROM GANGMAN TO IPS
Another success story is of IPS officer Prahlad Sahay Meena who joined IPS after serving as a gangman in the railways and after changing six government jobs.
In this age of unemployment, Prahlad Sahay Meena rejected those jobs that everyone hankers after day and night. It was not an easy decision for him but he still manage to focus on his aim of becoming an IPS officer and achieved the feat in the year 2017. He was allotted the Odisha cadre.
FAILING 35 TIMES BEFORE GETTING INTO CIVIL SERVICES
How would it feel like to fail 35 times in various competitive examinations? Ask Vijay Wardhan who tasted failures all his life until he finally cleared the UPSC exam to become an IPS officer in the fifth attempt and an IAS officer in the sixth attempt. The continuous rejection only motivated him further to learn from his mistakes, get up, and start again.
Mr. Wardhan, who is a graduate of Electronics and Communication Engineering, started his UPSC CSE preparation in 2013. After failing in 4 attempts, he finally got selected as an IPS officer in 2019. However, he appeared in the next year’s exam again in the quest for IAS and secured a rank that enabled him to do so.
Apart from the inspiring stories of these civil servants who went on to clear the tough CSE exam surmounting all obstacles on their way, we have compiled some tweets of civil servants from all over the country who are observing the Civil Services Day with much enthusiasm. But, before that, we, at Indian Masterminds, wish all civil servants a very happy Civil Services Day!
