The 22-year-old is an aspirant of India’s toughest test- the Civil Services Examination or UPSC- conducted to select candidates for the country’s top government posts.

Clearing the arduous exam- a three-tier process which includes a preliminary examination, a mains test and an interview- is a dream for a better future for students belonging to the country’s middle and lower income group, nothing short of Gatsby’s green “orgastic” light.

In its wake, the Gaokao- level exam has fueled an expansive coaching industry pegged at Rs 3,000 crore in India’s capital Delhi, only Rs 50 crore less than the country’s budgetary allocation for healthcare in the year 2022.

Training centers in Delhi charge Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh to prepare students who hail from various parts of the country for the exam which is, almost ironically, designed to be a leveler.

Same Dreams, Different Generations

For Vaibhav clearing the exam will kill two birds with one stone, he candidly asserts.

“It is my dream now but it was my father’s when he was my age. Though, he could not afford to even dream of it,” the 24-year-old who is the son of a farmer in India’s eastern state of Bihar said.

He has already attempted to clear the annual exam twice- for which applicants get between six to nine tries depending on their caste category- but failed to reach the interviews.

Refuting the idea that he felt family pressure to qualify the exam, Vaibhav asked, “Imagine I clear it and then a few years later my son also does! Won’t that be amazing?”

No Gender Left Behind

“The number of girls enrolling in our coaching center is increasing every year. The exam interests everyone, beyond gender,” Kritika Sharma, a counselor at one of Delhi’s top institutes said.

For a country which is ranked as low as 135th in terms of gender parity on World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report in 2022, clearing the exam for girls is aspirational, a concrete course of action to fight against inequality.

Tina Dabi, who topped the exam in 2015 in her first attempt at the age of 22, expressed how “life-changing” succeeding in the test has been for her as a female aspirant.

“People look up to me now, not only because I topped the exam but also because I am a girl who achieved that feat. Woman empowerment is very important, especially for India,” Dabi told news agency ANI.

“Women in India have truly arrived,” she exulted.

Not Our Lingua Franca

In 2017, when Gurjot was sitting for her first attempt of the exam, she was unsure of her chances. Belonging to a small town in Punjab, Gurjot had graduated from a college where the medium of instruction was not English.

“The hardest thing about the exam is not the exam at all. It is English,” the 26-year-old who has failed to clear the exam even after 5 years said.

Although the government allows candidates to take the exams in regional languages, English continues to be the most preferred choice for the students as coaching institutes offer course material in the language.

“Angrez chale gaye UPSC yaha hi hai,” [The British left India but UPSC exam is still here as a reminder of their rule] Gurjot said mocking the exam which is considered a legacy of the British as it was first started by the Raj.

The Urban-Rural Divide

“We cannot compete with someone who has been preparing for the exam since their childhood,” Pushkar, 27, who belongs to a small village in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh said.

Well-versed in English after living in Delhi for six years to prepare for the examination, he believes that the exam structure is untenable for an aspirant belonging to rural India.

“It is just not fair,” he says, accepting with resignation that social background determines success in the UPSC exam.

“Google whether a student from rural India can clear the UPSC exam or not. Even the search engine would give up.”