Faced with adversity, Asha Kandara decided to take things in her own hands. Picking up the broom she swept the streets for a living, while using her spare time to study and write examinations with those same hands to finally clear the Rajasthan Administrative Service.
Kandara’s story may sound straight out of a novel, yet it is true. Cut to 1997, when she was married and hoped for a quiet and happy life. But that didn’t work as her husband left her in 2002. After somehow managing to get over this traumatic separation, she made up her mind to pursue her education. Imagiine beginning from school, she slowly made it and became a graduate in 2016.
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Unlike many who don’t want to soil their hands, she without any hesitation appeared for an examination to recruit sweepers in Jodhpur Municipal Corporation and got the job.
During all this time, Kandara brought up her two children, on her own while supporting her parents. Her strenuous journey was fraught with humiliation and insults, being a deserted wife, and a sweeper.
Talking to Times News Network she said: “This all gave me strength that I have to become something in life and give a befitting reply to society, which still distinguishes. And this was possible only through education.”
Many would have been content with a job in a municipal authority. Not Kandara who dreamed of flying higher and higher. Moreover, as the taunts continued, her determination too did. She told TNN: “But this was just a phase. All these years passed hearing that you are not a collector, whenever, I asked for something or demanded something. Also the eyes of society bearing humiliation due to my caste and work, were quite intolerable. So, alongside my job, I began preparation for RAS and attempted the preliminary part in 2018 and when I passed, I knew no difference in day and night in preparing for the final part.”
Appearing in October 2018 for the final part, she meanwhile continued to work diligently, sweeping the roads till July 13 (Tuesday), when the results for RAS were declared. She will soon be posted as a Deputy Collector.
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Obviously happy with her achievement, Kandara wants to help others who are suffering her plight. “Though, it was a tough journey and I suffered a lot but now, I consider myself in a position where I wish to do something for the underprivileged and those subjected to injustice.”
Kandara in fact wanted to try for Indian Administrative Service, but age constraint played a barrier.
Her struggle and grit should be a sterling example for all, especially the lakhs of women who have been deserted by their husbands and also those who are subjugated to all sorts of discriminatory practices.
