Casteing Coach: Community-Based Civils Centres Mushroom Across Gujarat

Across Gujarat, caste-based institutions — to help youth from respective communities prepare for the state (State Public Service Commission or SSC) and national (Union Public Service Commission or UPSC) civil services exams — are mushrooming of late. 

Many in the business of training youth for these exams now highlight the rising success of state youth in cracking civil services exams as Gujaratis breaking the stereotype of being overwhelmingly trade-oriented. At this year’s UPSC, 26 youths from the state made it to the final list of successful candidates, with three of them breaking into the all-India top 30. 

According to Ashoksinh Parmar, the Director of Rajput IAS/Career Academy, all these institutes are run with donations received from their respective community leaders, with a focus on ensuring that "their people" sit in positions of power in the government.

Rajput Academy, Gandhinagar

Private, commercial tuitions for civil services exams have always existed. But now, there are caste-based institutes — like Ba Shri Dasharathba Mahendrasinh Parmar Rajput IAS/Career Academy, Gandhinagar, for Rajputs; Brahma Academy, Ahmedabad, for Brahmins; Shree Ahir Career Academy, Junagarh, for Yadavs; and Shree Limbach Mata Seva Trust in Ahmedabad, for Desais — are making waves. 

Most of these institutions are residential and take in promising young boys and girls from their respective communities against nominal charges, or even free of cost. They also rope in the best faculty members in different subjects from across the country. 

Talking to The Secretariat, Parmar, who is a retired Deputy Secretary of the Gujarat government, said, “The fees for our foundation course for both UPSC and GPSC exams are Rs 25,000 for 1,000 hours of tutorials — which costs around Rs 1-1.5 lakh otherwise. We provide lodging and boarding facilities, and a separate seat in the library 24x7 for an additional Rs 7,000 per month — which costs Rs 12,000 per month everywhere else.”

Noting that the Rajput Academy was founded in the year 2000 to help Rajput boys and girls prepare for various government and quasi-government competitive exams, Parmar said, “We achieved breakout successes in the years 2002, 2006, and 2008. But in 2010, there was a big breakthrough for our organisation. That year, one of our students secured the first rank in the GPSC exam, with 10 more candidates in the list. That meant 11 Rajput candidates directly became Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). At present, they are all Superintendents of Police (SP) with IPS rank.”

"Now, other Rajput organisations of the state and across India are seeking tips from us," he added. 

Brahmin Academy, Ahmedabad 

Similar feats have been achieved by Brahma Academy for Brahmin young boys and girls, as Sandeep Bhai Joshi said, “We have been running the institution for the past 7 years, during which we inducted around 1,800 students, out of whom, nearly 300 are in the state services at different ranks.” 

Noting that there is “no tuition fee” charged for the tutorials, Joshi said, “Since we provide coaching in the residential form, we charge only Rs 1,000 per month for food and lodging. The library facility is also free of cost.”  

He, however, said, "Of late, we have opened up for youth from other communities, though, only those who are poor, but promising.”

Centres For Yadavs And Desais

At Shree Ahir Career Academy in Junagadh district, the model remains the same. One of its senior functionaries, Nagji Bhai, said, “We have been running the academy for five years. We take young boys and girls from the community and put in effort to help them crack competitive examinations.” 

Noting that the Desai community has been running Shree Limbach Mata Seva Trust since 2017, Managing Director of the institute, Sahdev Bhai Rabari, said, “We started with a batch of 50 students. Now, we are imparting coaching to more than 1,000 boys and 200 girls, for different exams conducted by the state public service commission.” So far, 295 of their students have cracked different exams and are working in different departments of the Gujarat government, she added.

He further said that since the institute is residential, a nominal fee of Rs 2,000 per month is charged for lodging and food, while tuition is free of cost.