Tribal Girl cleared UPSC, lived in a Mud House - “Sreedhanya Suresh” proved that dedication doesn’t need status!

When dreams are strong enough, the foundation can be weak! This is what this tribal girl proved. Let’s read the story of Sreedhanya Suresh. The first tribal woman from Kerala who has cleared the examination by securing 410th rank in her third attempt. 

She is from a tribal village in Kerela and lived in a mud house with limited access to the basic amenities. She is the daughter of daily wage workers who sold bows and arrows in a local market. She had three siblings in the family. However, her family despite all financial crises provided her with proper education. She completed her graduation and post-graduation in zoology. She completed her graduation from St Joseph’s College and post-graduation from Calicut University.

She started her carrier as a clerk at Kerala’s Scheduled Tribes Development Department. Then she worked as a warden at an Adivasi hostel in Wayanad and that’s where all the game changed! She there got an opportunity to speak with then Wayanad Collector Sreeram Samashiva Rao who motivated her to take up the civil service examination. She then decided to move to Thiruvananthapuram so that she can take coaching for civil services. This coaching eventually helped her crack the prestigious examination. Guess what happened after that? She got selected for the face-to-face interview in IAS. But that was not so happy news for her! She did not have the money to travel. She asked her friends for help and they managed to arrange Rs 40,000 for her. Then she traveled to New Delhi for the interview.

While she was undergoing this entire process, the hardships that came in between made her so strong that she wished to inspire and educate her other tribal members to choose a bright carrier for them and become civil servants.

Soon the news of her success bought appreciation from different parts of the state. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, and Indian National Congress President Rahul Gandhi were among the top leaders to congratulate Sreedhanya Suresh on her achievement.

She always remembers that the first call she made after the results were out was to her mother. She always thanks her parents for the moral support they gave her, then Fortune Academy which allowed her to prepare for the mains for free, and the Scheduled Tribes Department which helped her with the finance for the preparation of the examination.

She was from once such a society where men and women were into fields and plantations and people used to treat them as untouchables. Overcoming all that and coming to the place where she is today is an example of a lot of people.

However, she calls herself lucky to have such parents who kept her childhood free and without restrictions.

Now when she has achieved what she desired she wants to work for the tribal students and other people in her community.

Let’s hope that this tribal girl will create a benchmark for herself and inspire many others like her to stand out in the crowd.