I.A.S CAREER

I.A.S CAREER

She may probably be the first nurse to get into the hallowed Civil Service and she is excited that her success would inspire more professional nurses to take the road to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Annies Kanmani Joy (26), who hails from a farmer's family of Pampakuda in Ernakulam district, has secured the 65th rank in the just-published Civil Service Exam results. Ms. Joy, who holds a B. Sc. (Nursing) degree from the Trivandrum Medical College, is the daughter of Parappalil Joy and Leela. She was placed at 580th position in last year's Civil Service exam and selected as a member of the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS). She is now undergoing ICAS training in Faridabad, Haryana. She was keen on getting into the IAS and hence opted to try her luck again and came out with flying colours.

Ms. Joy told The Hindu by phone from Faridabad that since there were 85 vacancies of IAS officers in the general category this year, she was confident of getting recruited for the IAS as she could secure the 65th rank. To her knowledge, Ms. Joy said, she was the first professional nurse to be selected for the position. Ms. Joy started working for the examination only after she passed out of the medical college as she was not aware that one could take the Civil Service exam after a nursing degree. She had opted Psychology and Malayalam Literature as her optional subjects for the Civil Service exam. After her four-year BSc. (Nursing) and one-year internship, Ms. Joy had trained for sometime at the Kerala Civil Service Academy, Thiruvananthapuram. Though she had done well at the nursing exam, she had never worked as a nurse. Ms. Joy's younger sister is doing her MSc. (Nursing) at Belgaum, Karnataka.

Her mother Leela told The Hindu that Ms. Joy was very hard-working and ambitious. Her daughter had no role model either in her family or in her husband's family, she said. Ms. Joy's victory has warmed the hearts of the legion of nurses from Kerala who serve all over the world, including the far-flung towns of Africa. Kerala nurses are esteemed for their professional skill, competence and compassion in Europe and the U.S. However, in Kerala, outside the government sector, nurses are paid abysmally low wages, forcing them to go on strike at many reputed hospitals. The S. Balaraman Committee, appointed by the UDF government, last week came up with a report recommending massive hike in their salaries, better service conditions and the scrapping of the obnoxious ‘bond system' that tethered the nurses to the hospitals where they work for years. The authorities in Pampakuda are planning to give a reception to Ms. Joy when she visits her home.

                                            Prof. John Kurakar