Ilma Afroz’s father was a farmer in Kundarki village of Uttar Pradesh.
After passing his school with good marks, the IPS officer studied philosophy at St. Stephen’s College in the national capital.
Thirty-year-old IPS Ilma Afroz hails from a small village named Kundarki in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. He was inducted into the Indian Police Service in August 2018 after leaving his comfortable life in New York to return to India. However, his journey was not smooth and had its fair share of struggles. She was only 14 when her farmer father died of cancer. Her mother took the lead in raising her along with her 12-year-old brother.
Speaking with Better India in 2019, Ilma described her mother as a strong woman and shared that instead of saving money for her dowry and marrying her, her mother gave her a chance to fulfill her potential.
After passing his school with good marks, the IPS officer studied philosophy at St. Stephen’s College in the national capital. She was a brilliant student, Ilma was offered a scholarship to study at Oxford University for her higher education. He also attended Sciences Po, Paris as an exchange student.
After the United Kingdom, she made her way to New York City where she participated in a voluntary service program in Manhattan. However, he always felt that something was missing.
“Every single day when I returned to my room in downtown Manhattan, I would yearn for home. For Ammi, and for her smile. I would look out my bedroom window at the New York skyline and yellow taxis like matches floating in the streets – a ubiquitous image associated with the American dream. Would my Oxford education, I asked myself, be chasing a ‘foreign dream’?’ He added.
Ilma is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and wants to do something to benefit the country through her education and experiences.
Whenever she returned to India, her relatives or neighbors would ask her for help with simple things like getting a ration card or filling some forms. When he realized that his happiness was back in India, he applied for civil services and got an opportunity to work for the betterment of the people.
She cleared her exam in 2017 with an all India rank of 217 and was allotted the Himachal Pradesh cadre, where she underwent a 16-month training process.
read all latest education news Here