S Sushree, 23-year-old from Kollam, has become the youngest female IPS officer. It is not just a story of her hard work alone, but that of her loving father too.
She was the youngest to qualify the civil services exam in 2017 and now she has joined the Odisha cadre, fulfilling a dream that the father-daughter duo chased for long, spending long hours of hard work and self-motivation.
After completing her more than year-long training at Dehradun and National Police Academy at Hyderabad, he joined the cadre to be the youngest female IPS officer in the country. She secured 151st rank in her first attempt and was the 5th rank holder from the State that year.
She first got motivated by none other than former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh when she got a chance to present a bouquet to him and interact with him. Because, her father who was a CRPF personnel was in the Special Protection Group of then PM. She was just 14.
She had a brief interaction with Singh wherein he asked her about her dreams. “I told him that I want to become a civil servant. He blessed me and I was very happy and motivated,” she was quoted saying by the media when she passed the exam.
But that changed her life as she saw the decorated officers.
In 2010, her father P Sunil Kumar left his job to support her ambition and settled at Anchal. He made sure that they got the newspapers and current affairs magazines to prepare as early as a child. He spent time with her, teaching her and gathering notes.
Starting from 4.30 to 9 pm, father and daughter worked hard during her college days at St. John’s College in Anchal. Both systematically prepared the notes and he gave personal coaching and classes to boost her confidence. He prepared notes to help her.
After the college, she was sent to the State civil services training institute in Thiruvananthapuram where they could make use of the library. While she was having training, the father would collect the books and prepare the notes. And the hard work paid off finally. She cracked the exam in her first attempt.
“I prepared a time-table which she strictly followed. We did not send her for any coaching and wanted her to crack the exam in her first attempt,” her father was quoted saying.
And truly, she dedicated her achievement to her father whom she considered as the biggest motivation.
