Meet Ratna Vishwanathan, The Former Civil Servant Who Now Follows Her Passion For Teaching

Various success stories often go viral on the internet every day. Recently, one such story of Ratna Vishwanathan, who cracked UPSC and became a grade officer. But she left her government job to teach children. She is garnering everyone’s attention after this. In a recent media interaction, Ratna Vishwanathan shared that she had never thought that she would be able to pass a difficult exam like the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). It happened when she was doing an MA in English Literature from Lucknow University. Ratna was not very serious about studies, but she got the support of friends who were studying. During this time, some of them decided to give the UPSC exam. When her friends filled out the form, Ratna also applied for it. Ratna said in an interview, “In 1987, neither there were so many coaching institutes nor did people have the ability to spend on studies. So, all of us friends used to sit together and discuss with each other and do group study, but when I gave the UPSC exam, I got selected in the preliminary.” After which she became serious and prepared for the main interview in such a way that she got success. When the final selection happened, she got the IPS cadre.

Ratna Vishwanathan said that her father advised her not to choose to become an IPS but to join some other service. The family members believed that Ratna would not be able to fit in the police department. After this, Ratna decided to join the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS). The Indian Audit and Accounts Service is a Group A service, which comes under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

She worked for 21 years in various departments like Audit, Defense Ministry, and Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Ratna Vishwanathan also shared that even after all this, she felt that she should do something for society. She resigned from the government job in 2008 and took VRS. After this, she started working for social change by joining many national and international organisations. She worked as the Operations Director of Oxfam India for about four years.

Ratna Vishwanathan also worked with many NGOs. She also worked with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Since 2020, she has been working to educate schoolchildren as the CEO of ‘Reach to Teach’.