The Kashmir Valley, although brimming with turmoil, has succeeded in producing a record performance in the civil services exam this year. With eight of its candidates cracking the top exam, Ruveda Salam, 27 years old, has turned out to be the first Muslim woman to clear the civil services exam from the Valley. Eleven candidates have cleared the exam from Kashmir this year, out of which, three are women. Ruveda Salam is from Kashmir and the other two are from the Jammu region. Ruveda Salam is the daughter of former deputy director general of Doordarshan. Dr. Ruveda, who comes from the district of Kupwara, had cleared the Kashmir Administrative Service exam in 2009 itself, but still wanted to do better. After a year of backbreaking she flourished without taking the help of any coaching center.
She used Facebook as a means to gain more knowledge. She says that Facebook has many pages that are knowledge banks and not merely irrelevant social networking. She advises all Kashmir girls to seize the moment and join the civil services to make their families and the entire Valley proud.
Ruveda Salam is not the only aspirant of this kind. Sehrish Asgar and Showkat Ahmed have also succeeded in cracking the civil services exam a second time, securing 23rd and 41st ranks, respectively. Experts say that the youth of Kashmir is following the foot steps of Shah Faesal, who created history by topping the All India merit list in 2010.