Blind 23 Year-Old Cracks Odisha Civil Services Exam, Under General Category In First Attempt

They say life is full of roadblocks. Even more so for someone with visual impairment. However, we have numerous examples of people who have successfully overcome this disability and achieved their goals.

31-year-old Pranjal Patil who is India’s first blind woman IAS officer recently became the Sub-Collector of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and 25-year-old Jyothsna Phanija who was born 100% blind is the youngest person to complete a Ph.D. in English Literature from an Indian university.

Sulochana Das, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Odisha, recently shared that 23-year-old Tapaswini Das who lost her eyesight in Class 2 cracked the Odisha Civil Services examination 2018 as a general candidate. The results were announced on January 6 and she secured the 161st rank in her first attempt.

Congratulations to Tapaswini Das of Bhubaneswar who has cleared the Odisha Civil Service Examination 2018 despite being visually impaired. She would become the first visually challenged lady OAS officer of Odisha. pic.twitter.com/SKo2Hu6JRL

— Sulochana Das (@SulochanaDas1) January 7, 2020

Hindustan Times quoted her saying,

“People who have clear eyesight, they can read from books directly. But I had to depend on recordings of several books that I stored on my laptop. I used to scan books and turn them into audio format. I have never shied away from challenges in life. So I told myself let’s give it a try.”

Her father Arun Kumar Das was quoted adding,

“I was heartbroken when a botched up surgery took both her eyesight. She was in Std 2 then and used to top her class. I then put her in a school for visually impaired from where she passed her matriculation exam with flying colours using Braille script. She passed the higher secondary examination in arts stream topping the list of successful students. She did extremely well in her graduation too. All throughout her career, she has been a persevering student.”

People congratulated her on her achievement and thanked her for being such an inspiration.

Great achievement and a role model for many such differently able persons.

— Dr.Shrikant (@shrikant_dr) January 8, 2020

Inspiration 👏🏻👏🏻

— Subhrajit Jena (@sj_subhrajit) January 8, 2020

https://twitter.com/BiplabL/status/1214570384600653827

Best wishes to you and your family 🙏

— Mukesh🇮🇳Kumar🇮🇳polai (@Mukesh_k_polai) January 8, 2020

https://twitter.com/jaggeee806/status/1214744626344521728

She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in political science from Bhubaneswar’s Utkal University and hopes to take on the UPSC examination next. We wish her all the very best!