“Public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation.”- Margaret Chase Smith
The story of Manjita Vanzara is an inspiration in a lot of ways. It inspires the youth, the parents, the women of the society and everyone who has dreams in their eyes. Her career path is as twisted as it seems. She went from being an engineer, to studying fashion design and then, finally clearing the Civil Services Exam and becoming an Assistant Commissioner Of Police. Let’s take a look why she chose to be a police officer.
Early Life
Manjita was born and brought up in a family where everyone had a Civil Services background, yet she was never interested in being one of the IAS or IPS. After completing her schooling, she chose engineering for graduation. She completed her engineering from Nirma University and during her graduation she developed an interest in fashion designing. So right after graduation, she enrolled herself for fashion designing from NIFT. She even worked some of the most reputed fashion brands in the city. Soon she decided to do her post graduation in education and completed it by achieving a gold medal.
“During my post-graduation a thought occurred to me that I have always received good things from the society, what is the best way to give back to the society?”- MANJITA
Manjita, although born with a silver spoon, had to struggle a lot. Her parents wanted her to know what a common man goes through each day. They never gave her a car to travel, she used the public transport to commune. That is when, Manjita realized the hardships of a common person and decided to work for the people.
Life as a Police Officer
Manjita started to prepare for the Civil Services during her post graduation itself. Although she could not clear the exam in the first attempt, but in 2011, Manjita passed the UPSC exam and became the Assistant Commissioner of Police F-division. And today, Manjita is now a part of a program called, SurakshaSahay, that helped women in the bootlegging business to bring a change in their lives and improve their standard of living by providing them stipend while collaborating with big brands.
Today, Manjita is a well-known officer famous for her creative ways to deal with criminals. She is an honest and polite police officer who is always ready to listen to the problems of people and find ways to solve them.
“There are friends of mine who earn in 7 digits but for me bringing a smile on a deprived women, or helping a child get education is worth more than 7 digits. It has never been about money, it has always been about helping the people.”- MANJITA
There is an incident when Manjita went into a gambling den wearing burqa and caught 28 gamblers red-handed. Her unique style of dealing with criminals made her popular among the people. She also did similar raids to uncover sex rackets. She is also known for freeing the Chharnagar colony from illegal liquor business.
This is the message she gave to the people in a post on HumansOfABad–
“Usually, parents want their daughters to be doctor or engineer or architect. I feel that they should actively think of sending them to the police force as it can be a very fulfilling job. This is a field where women avoid joining so I encourage more women to join police. I also want more and more young people to join Police Force.”- MANJITA
A Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi performer, Manjita wants more women to be a part of the police force and take the reign of their lives in their own hands. She is surely a storehouse of talent. Manjita’s life story is a motivation for everyone who wants to make this nation a better place. Her story is a motivation for the people who are afraid of choosing a career path too late. She is a motivation for every women who’s afraid to join the police or army because someone said it’s not for the women.
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