While diversity among those making it to the civil services is a welcome trend, it takes more to make the system truly inclusive. “There remains an innate prejudice against candidates who aren’t English speakers,” says a retired bureaucrat, who served on UPSC’s interview panel for five years. He cites an example of a woman candidate from a border village in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. “She was the daughter of two beggars and studied in the local government school. Seeing her aptitude, a teacher recommended her for admission to a Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. She was brilliant in her interview. She put all of us to shame with her knowledge and poise. It’s just that she was not fluent in English, with Hindi being her preferred language of communication. While I was in favour of her making it to the IAS and awarded her high marks, the chairman of the panel, an IFS (Indian Foreign Service) officer, did not find her ‘officer material’. I argued in her favour as I believed she would make an outstanding officer, but the chairman asked me not to worry, saying she would probably make it to the IRS.”