Meet Namrata Jain, girl from Maoist-affected Dantewada who secured 12th rank in UPSC exam

Defying all odds, 25-year-old Namrata Jain, hailing from Chhattisgarh's Maoist-affected Dantewada district, secured twelfth rank in the civil services final examination 2018, results of which were announced by the UPSC on Friday.

This was Jain’s third attempt of joining the civil services. In the 2016 exams, she had stood 99th in the list of 1099 successful candidates.

An alumnus of KPS Bhilai School and engineering degree holder from Bhilai Institute of Technology, she came to Delhi to prepare for the UPSC exam.  

Jain was mentored by a group of IAS and IPS officers under the Dantewada district administration.

According to her bio-data published on an online education site, a horrific incident of her childhood inspired her to take up civil services. As a young girl of ten, Namrata witnessed violence in her hometown of Dantewada when eleven policemen died as a result of a Maoist attack on a police camp, the report said. Seeing the police station in flames, she told herself she would do something for her strife-torn town, it said. 

The civil services (preliminary) examination, 2018 was conducted on June 3, 2018. A total of 10,65,552 candidates applied for this examination, out of which 4,93,972 candidates actually appeared.

A total of 10,468 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in September-October, 2018. A total of 1994 candidates qualified for the personality test conducted in February-March, 2019.

The top 25 candidates comprise 15 men and 10 women. The recommended candidates also include 36 persons with benchmark disability (11 orthopedically handicapped; 12 visually challenged, 11 hearing impaired and two multiple disability).

Kanishak Kataria, a B.Tech from IIT Bombay, topped the exam while Srushti Jayant Deshmukh is the topper among women candidates securing an overall fifth rank.

Appointment to the various services will be made according to the number of vacancies available with due consideration to the provisions contained in the rules for the examination, the UPSC said.

The number of vacancies reported by the government to be filled is as under: IAS-180 (including reserved category), IFS-30, IPS-150, Central Services Group 'A'-384, Group 'B' services-68.

Educational qualification-wise the top 25 candidates belong to subjects like Engineering; Sciences; Economics; Law; Mathematics; History; Political Science; Public administration and Commerce graduating from premier Institutions of the country such as IITs, NIT, NLU, BITS Pilani, DU, Mumbai University, Anna University, Pune University, etc.

Optional subjects of the top 25 candidates in the examination ranged from Anthropology, Chemistry, Commerce & Accountancy, Geography, Law, Maths, History, Political Science & International Relations, Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, and English Literature.