India's Inspiration: Meet Beno Zephine, First 100 Pct Blind IFS Officer

BENGALURU: ‘Follow your passion and do not let anyone limit your dreams’ has been the motto of Beno Zephine’s life. Beno Zephine is the first 100 per cent blind Indian Forest Services Officer. She is also the first 100 per cent visually challenged Indian to gain entry into the 69 year old Forest Services.

Beno Zephine humbly attributed her success to her mother who has been her support system throughout her difficult times. Reaching this epitome of success was certainly not easy for Beno. Beno was born with disability; she studied in Little Flower Convent which cheered her to pursue higher studies despite the difficulties. As a kid she could only use Braille books for studies before moving on to Job Access with Speech (JAWS). JAWS is a software that allows visually challenged to read from a computer screen to scan Tamil and English books.

Beno is presently working as Probationary Officer with State Bank of India. The big news came to her in the midnight on 12^th of June and since then Beno was literally on her toes. She immediately thanked the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi for his decision.

In her words, "I am really thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking this big decision. I am told the IFS was not identified for the blind with certain exceptions made for candidates with low vision."

So far many promising candidates have lost a chance to break through the services due to the mandatory 20:20 vision. This revolutionary decision made by the Government of India is widely being hailed by the former diplomats and officials in the Center.

Her diplomacy is nothing less than any other eligible candidates as it is proved when she spoke to the media personnel saying “Either you mention the names of all people and institutes who have encouraged and supported me, or don't publish any.”

With this decision the Indian Civil Services, the highest civilian examinations became all the more inclusive.

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