Married At 17 To Older Man Then Divorced, Now Serves The Country As DSP

Overcoming the struggle against dozens of ironies and anomalies present in our society, Indian women are today playing an important role. They are in every field and are perched at the top of every sector. If we take a look at education, we will find that the rate of illiteracy is higher among women as they get lesser support from their family. In every sector, be it science, business, space, sports, politics, Indian women have emerged as a driving force to set new heights.

Anita Prabha Sharma is such a personality whose life story will inspire and motivate other women to achieve a similar feat in life. Anita changed her own life from a hell to a successful one by sheer hard work and will to overcome every barrier that she had faced in her life.

She was married to a 27-year-old man at the age of 17 and faced sever financial constraints. She got a divorce and decided to do something which will not just improve her life but also the younger generation.

Life of Anita Prabha, a Deputy Superintendent of Police of Balaghat District, Madhya Pradesh can be compared with a plot of a Bollywood flick. She was born and raised in a middle-class family in Kotma village in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh. She was a promising student from her childhood and secured 92 percent marks in the 10th standard examination. She had big dreams of doing something great in life. However, it did not take long for her dreams to be shattered. Her parents were pressurized to follow the village tradition to marry girls at a young age. She knew that would be the end of all her dreams.

Anita did not give up initially and insisted her parents to let her study more. They somehow agreed and let her go to her brother’s house in Gwalior. She gave the STD 12 examinations but soon enough was pressurized to get married. Despite her stubborn resistance, Anita was married off to a man 10 years older than her when he was just 17.

Anita did not give up her dream even after getting married. She continued her studies while keeping up with all the new responsibilities in her in-laws’ house. But once again she did not have luck by her side. Right before the the final year exams in her graduation her husband faced an accident and she had to miss them. But the next year, she passed the examination first class. But the gap year created problems for her later. Anita was shocked when she was rejected for the post of Probationary Bank Officer for not completing her graduation in three years.

During all these difficult periods in life, Anita never gave away her self-esteem and confidence to do something big in life. Because of her husband’s accident, the economic condition of the house was also deteriorated. All the burden of the family came on Anita’s shoulder. To run her family, Anita started working in a parlor after completing a crash course.

Anita always kept her dream alive of securing a government job for an independent and self-reliant life. She carried on her struggle without any support from the family. In the year 2013, she appeared for the forest guard examination for which she walked for 14 kilometer in four hours. Her struggle was eventually bore fruits. She passed the exam with a good rank and in December 2013 she got her posting in Balaghat district.

However, this wasn’t enough for her. She once again decided to compete and appeared for the examination for sub-inspector’s post. Although she was working as a forest guard, she failed in the physical test round. She took it as a challenge and passed the test in her next attempt. She had done this after undergoing a surgery for ovarian tumors barely two months before the examination. Meanwhile, her divorce case had also reached the court. She says they always had difficulty connecting because of their age difference and experienced compatibility issues.

Anita kept on chasing her dreams even after facing countless challenges. During her training for the sub-inspector’s post, results of the Madhya Pradesh State Public Service Commission examination came out where she sat before joining the police line. She had received the DSP rank in that examination. In her very first attempt, she secured the 17th rank among the women and ranked 47th in all the categories. However, Anita was not satisfied with the DSP post and sat for the MPPSC examination once again for the higher post of deputy collector. She passed the examination in April 2016 and its interview was recently done in March 2017. She is now waiting for the result.

Anita, who achieved all these feats is just 25-year-old. She never got any support from her parents or her husband. But in every situation she fought it out all alone and never gave up her quench for success and live her dream. Anita’s passion for women empowerment needs to be truly saluted.