Meet daughter of vegetable vendor whose mother mortgaged gold for her studies, failed to crack UPSC exam 4 times then...

Some success stories require the sacrifice of the entire family rather than just the person. One such story is of Swati Mohan Rathod who got AIR 492 in the recent Union Public Service Commission 2023 results. 

She is the daughter of a vegetable vendor in Solapur, Maharashtra, and had a modest upbringing. Her family includes three other daughters and a son, and they all faced financial constraints but that didn't intervene with Swati's dream.

"My mother mortgaged her gold but did not let it become a problem for my studies," she said in a media interview.

After Swati finished her secondary education at a government school in Mumbai, the city was extremely unaffordable for the family, so they shifted 400 kilometres away to Solapur.

After finishing her secondary education, she completed her master's in geography at Walchand College in Solapur. It was during that time that she got intrigued by the UPSC exam. It took her five attempts to finally crack the UPSC exam. "I gave more importance to solutions than problems and worked on them," she said.

Owing to her unwavering determination, she overcame failure and eventually tasted victory. Each setback only served to strengthen her resolve, and is thus now a beacon of perseverance and resilience.