All five of a farmer’s daughters passed the Rajasthan Administrative Service Exam in a region notorious for female foeticide and underage marriages. They credit their progressive father as the key to their success.
Parents of five girls, Sahdev Saharan and his illiterate wife Luxmi come from the Rajasthani hamlet of Bherusari, which is part of the Hanumangarh District. Sahdev, a farmer by trade, relied on agriculture to make ends meet, but owing to ongoing water logging, getting adequate harvests from his field was challenging.
He did not, however, allow his daughters’ education to be hampered by his financial situation. He taught the girls at home and urged them to have high dreams even though he couldn’t afford to send them to school.
The older sisters Roma and Manju began studying for the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) Exam after receiving their degrees. The test is given to find candidates for the state government’s administrative apparatus.
Roma became the family’s first RAS officer in 2010, and Manju also passed the test in 2017. Anshu, Ritu, and Suman, the younger sisters, also passed the RAS test in 2018 after being motivated by their older sisters’ achievements. All five of the girls have now achieved RAS officer status through pure guts and perseverance.
The Saharan sisters are also in charge of Pahal Academy, an online tutoring service for state-level civil service exams.
