In every two or three years a District Commissioner is transferred or posted in a new service region. Certainly, most of them do their assigned jobs responsibly. But, how many times officers try to go beyond their duties to help people to win their hearts and upon their transfer, the people in that certain area end up naming the village after them? Very rarely. However, IAS officer Ms Divya Devrajan has earned this rare honour with her commitment and love for people. The 2010-batch IAS officer was posted in Adilabad, Telangana in 2017 and upon her transfer in last February a tribal group named a village in the district ‘Divyaguda’ to show love and respect for her.
When Ms Divya took the charge of the district, it was going through tribal conflict. It was not an easy time for the district owing to mistrust between the tribals and local government bodies. She knew that the only way out of the situation is to be sensitive and create an atmosphere where barrier-free communication could take place. Since the tribal population was mostly Gonds and used to speak Gondi, so she started learning the language.
But unlike other officers, she didn’t stop at the basics of Gondi. In three months she became fluent in the language.
Learning the language made her journey easier. She started communicating effectively with the people and listen to their problems. This helped her to build trust of the tribals. They started coming to her with their problems. The whole scenario of `panchayats’ changed because of this simple effort by her. People started speaking freely for themselves. Till then, Ms Divya had known that main issue is language barrier and once it is resolve the development will be easy. So, she appointed tribal coordinators, language translators in government hospitals and other public places. This made the administrative office more accessible for the tribal.
Ms Divya herself comes from a humble background. For a very long time, her family’s economy was dependent on agriculture as her grandfather was a farmer. She had seen him struggle. So the main goal for cracking UPSC was to solve the problems and be there for the needy. From the very first posting as SDM at Bhongir, she has worked with a solution driven attitude. There she issued ST certificate to a large number of migratory tribals popularly known as Eruku-Ias.
She worked with same passion for the people of Adilabad as well. In addition to the conflict the district was facing basic problems like high rates of illiteracy, unemployment, sanitation, irrigation health and floods. Divya took all these issues under consideration while working to resolve the conflict simultaneously. She used to visit them personally and tried to know their issues personally rather than forcing the change on them. She used to participate in their cultural festivities and earned the place of a family member among them. She took steps to level the land of the region which were flood prone. Divya also helped in solving the land issues which were pending for decades. Most of farmers were growing cotton in the district, she helped them getting Minimum Support Price for their product.
Like most of the tribal areas of our country, Adilabad’s people were also unaware of their legal and constitutional rights. She organized group meetings to create awareness about their rights. She even appointed PESA (The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996) coordinators who helped the tribe to learn their rights and the ways to use them. She also made efforts in order to preserve the culture of the tribal communities. She participated in their main festivals like Dandari-Gussadi and Nagoba Jatra and used official support to document their traditions in the form of a documentary. All these endless efforts didn’t go in vain. The people of Adilabad still remember her and hope to get another officer like her. They gave her a teary-eyed farewell and an honour which is irreplaceable. Now, this remarkable officer is serving as the Secretary & Commissioner for Women, Child, Disabled & Senior Citizens. We hope that she will continue doing good work.
