UPSC Success Story: For many, difficult circumstances can become a reason to give up. For Ritu Khokhar, the daughter of a Haryana farmer, they became a reason to work harder. From studying at a government school in her village until Class 10 to clearing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination in her first attempt, Khokhar’s journey is a story of determination and perseverance.
Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ritu Khokhar, currently serving as the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Dharashiv district in Maharashtra, belongs to a small village in Haryana. She secured All India Rank 141 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2017 and was selected for the IPS. She is a 2018-batch IPS officer of the Maharashtra cadre.
She later joined Kurukshetra University, where she pursued a master’s degree in Mathematics. Her journey from a government-school student from a farmer’s family to an IPS officer has often been cited as an example of how students from modest backgrounds can pursue the country’s highly competitive civil services examination. Khokhar was born on October 23, 1994, in Bhader village of Panipat district, Haryana, to farmer Tarachand and Sunita Devi. She completed her Class 10 education at the government school in her village before completing Class 12 from a school in Panipat. In 2016, she completed her MSc in Mathematics with a gold medal.
