Ilma Afroz’s father was a farmer in Kundarki village, Uttar Pradesh.
After passing her school with flying colours, the IPS officer studied philosophy at St Stephen’s College in the national capital.
Thirty-year-old IPS Ilma Afroz hails from a small village named Kundarki in the Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. She was inducted into the Indian Police Service in August 2018 after she left her comfortable life in New York to return to India. However, her journey was not smooth and had its fair share of struggles. She was only 14 when her father, a farmer, died due to cancer. Her mother took up the mantle of raising her along with her 12-year-old brother.
Speaking with Better India in 2019, Ilma called her mother a strong woman and shared that instead of saving up money for her dowry and marrying her off, her mother gave her the chance to fulfil her potential.
After passing her school with flying colours, the IPS officer studied philosophy at St Stephen’s College in the national capital. The meritorious student that she was, Ilma was offered a scholarship to study at Oxford University for her higher education. She also attended Sciences Po, Paris as an exchange student.
After the United Kingdom, she made her way to New York City where she attended a voluntary service programme in Manhattan. However, she always felt that something was missing.
“Every single day when I returned to my room in downtown Manhattan, I would yearn for home. For Ammi, and her smile. I would look out from the window of my room at the New York skyline and watch the matchbox-like yellow taxis swarming the streets — a ubiquitous image associated with the American dream. I asked myself will my Oxford education go towards running after a ‘foreign dream’?” she added.
Ilma is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and wanted to do her bit that would benefit the nation through her education and experiences.
Whenever she used to return to India, her relatives or neighbours would seek help from her for simple things like acquiring ration cards or filling out some forms. When she realised that her happiness lay back in India, she applied for civil services and was the opportunity to work for the betterment of people.
She cleared her examination in 2017 with an all-India rank of 217 and was allocated to the Himachal Pradesh cadre, where she underwent a 16-month training process.
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