Zephine Beno has become the first-ever 100 per cent blind women to enter South Block (Union foreign ministry) as an IFS officer. It was a tough few years of work for her, but Beno, 24, never give up and has secured an all-India rank of 343 in UPSC exam.
“My disability never stops me from gaining success, though it would probably have been, if I considered it so. Both my parents were a constant source of support.
Ms Zephine, who completed her masters in English at Loyola College and is now pursuing Ph.D. at Bharatiyar University, is all set to join the ministry within the next 60 days for training.”Preparing for the civil services made it easy for me to clear other competitive exams,” she said.
My advice to the disabled (who wish to write the UPSC exams) is “count on the support of all resources you are surrounded with and never give up under any circumstances,” said Ms Zephine, who had also worked at State Bank of India for about a year.
She got a few books brailled, but much of her preparation was done with the help of her father and friends. “Her father reads the newspaper for her every morning, and she was an exceptionally sharp observer,” said Sathya, MD of Strategy IAS Academy, who coached Beno to face the interviews along with experts at Manidhaneyam IAS Academy.
She had to juggle preparing for a PhD in English literature from Bharathiar University with a full time job as a probationary officer in SBI. “I learnt to balance both and understood how to use my time efficiently in the process,” she said.
Ms Zephine recalls. “It was the abhorrence she exhibited in her teenage years, when she find people wasting a single drop of water and the subsequent response from her relatives and friends, which inspired N.L. Beno Zephine, now 25 years old, to attempt the civil service examinations.
Whenever she used to urge people to conserve natural resources, they would tease her, calling her nattamai (village head) and collector (IAS officer). In 2014 she secured an impressive all-India 343 rank in the UPSC exam, now, they would have to call her not an IAS officer but an IFS officer.
When asked whether she has lined up any specific plans, now that she is set to become a civil servant, she replied, ‘All that I am concerned about right now is giving the best performance in service.”