From UPSC heartbreak to social impact: Shruti Shrivastava’s second chance

In 2024, after 7 years, 6 attempts, and reaching the UPSC interview, Shruti Shrivastava recorded herself checking the final list. Her name wasn’t there.“I felt like the ground disappeared,” says the Lady Shri Ram College graduate from Madhya Pradesh.

For months she struggled with grief and identity loss. A letter from her parents changed her perspective: “A person’s worth cannot be decided by a result. People remember Baba Amte and Vinoba Bhave, not just rank holders.”

Therapy helped her heal. Then an old friend from her volunteer days at LSR’s ‘Chehel’ initiative, IAS officer Mrinalika Rathore, asked her to take over her NGO — Sashaktikaran Foundation.

Shruti and her husband Gaurav moved to Bhopal. Today, the foundation works with over 800 rural children on education and 30 women on livelihoods.“Success is ending the day feeling I have done something meaningful,” she says.