Hearing-impaired clears IAS, after 15 yrs of toil

Updated on: Thursday, October 08, 2009

New Delhi: Maniram Sharma, a deaf IAS candidate learnt that he had made it to the services after 15 long years struggle.

With this Maniram Sharma has not just won a personal battle but a milestone victory for disabled persons like him who have been kept away from the premier government service.

Maniram's case was highlighted by the media over the past couple of years-how his efforts were thwarted on one ground or the other, till he finally went through surgery to make his aided hearing so good that he gave his IAS interview this time by the oral question-and-answer method.

Finally, on September 3 he was informed that he had cleared the exam on all counts but still had to wait for another month to get his appointment. 'I still can't believe it has happened. It has not sunk in. After suffering so many disappointments, it's difficult to imagine it has actually come true,' Maniram told.

Maniram's IAS struggle began in 1995 when he failed in his first attempt to clear the preliminary examination. He was then 100% deaf. Since then he has cleared the exam three times â€” 2005, 2006 and 2009.

In 2006, he was told that only the partially deaf were eligible to be allotted as IAS not fully deaf persons like him. So, he was allotted the Post and Telegraph Accounts and Finance Service.

To improve his hearing, Maniram went through a surgery, cochlear implant, costing Rs 7.5 lakh that now enables him to hear partially.

He appeared for the IAS again this year and cleared it, scoring the highest in the hearing-impaired category. Yet, he faced several more hurdles as the government put technical hurdles questioning his level of disability.

Maniram's Badangarhi is a remote village that doesn't even have a school. He started losing his hearing at the age of five, becoming totally deaf by nine. His parents, both illiterate farm labourers, could do little to help.

In his second year in college, he cleared the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) examination to become a clerk-cum-typist. He studied and worked during his final year and topped the university in Political Science. He went on to clear the NET (National Eligibility Test).

He became a lecturer giving up his RPSC job. Not satisfied with that, he became a Junior Research Fellow and completed his Ph.D in Political Science during which he taught M Phil and MA students in Rajasthan University.

Having completed his Ph.D, Maniram got through the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) and while in service he started trying for the UPSC.

Hearing-impaired clears IAS, after 15 yrs of toil

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