Husband and daughter died, she was called a witch. She still cracked RAS with one eye

For most people, one of these tragedies might have been enough to derail everything. For Rohini Gurjar, they came one after another.

Her husband died. Her grandmother-in-law, the woman who pushed her to study, died. Her 10-year-old daughter died just days before her Rajasthan Administrative Service Mains exam. Then, two days before the test, an accident badly injured her eye.

She still went into the examination hall.

Rohini, an Ajmer resident, has now secured second rank in the Most Backward Classes (MBC) widow category in the RAS 2024 examination and has been allotted the Rajasthan Accounts Service.

Rohini’s journey back to education began after a gap of nearly 15 years. She had completed her BA in 2006 and was the first girl from her village, Ghughra, to graduate. She later worked as a private school teacher, married in 2011 and became a mother in 2013, she described in a video by Drishti IAS.

Her husband died on February 18, 2021, after suffering a cardiac attack and undergoing treatment for nearly two months.

His death brought grief, but also social stigma. Rohini told NDTV that she faced a lack of support from her in-laws and was taunted because she had two daughters instead of a son.

In the village, some people went further and blamed her for her husband’s death, calling her a witch.

Her brother Narendra Gurjar and grandmother-in-law Pushpa Devi stood by her. Pushpa Devi was around 95 and had never received formal education, but she repeatedly encouraged Rohini to resume her studies.

So, in late 2021, Rohini began preparing for competitive examinations.WHEN LIFE KEPT TAKING MORE

Her first RAS attempt ended with a preliminary success, but she missed the Mains cutoff by 10 marks. She tried again and moved to Jaipur in 2023 for preparation.

Rohini eventually regained her confidence and continued studying. But on June 29, 2024, another tragedy struck. Her 10-year-old elder daughter suddenly fell ill and died.

The RAS Mains exam was only days away.

“I had lost all hope,” Rohini recalled, initially deciding not to sit for the examination.

Her family persuaded her to go ahead, particularly for her younger daughter, Bhoomi.

Two days before Mains, Rohini met with an accident and suffered a serious injury to her eye. In the Drishti IAS video, she described sitting for the examination with one eye bandaged and the other doing all the work.

“I broke down many times, and many times I stood back up,” she said.WHY SHE KEPT GOING

Rohini said she had one goal in mind: to make her late husband, grandmother-in-law and daughter proud.

“Circumstances came again and again. They broke me many times. I broke down many times, and many times I stood back up.”

That determination eventually took her across the RAS finish line.

Today, Rohini lives with her younger daughter and wants her success to challenge the conservative attitudes she encountered in village life.

“I want conservative thinking to change. Girls should get the opportunity to study and move forward,” she said.

From being the first girl in her village to graduate to returning to education after 15 years, from being branded a witch after her husband’s death to writing an exam with an injured eye after losing her daughter, Rohini’s RAS result represents far more than a government job.

It is the future she fought to secure for herself and her daughter.- EndsRead | Lost both hands at 10, cleared RAS on 2nd attempt: How a Rajasthan man became TehsildarRead | From cerebral palsy to IIT to UPSC rank 112: Manvendra Singh's inspiring journey