IAS aspirants, and their silent presence

In the narrow, crowded lanes of Old Rajendra Nagar and Mukherjee Nagar, thousands of students chase the dream of joining India's elite civil services.

- Aheli Das

NEW DELHI: They have reshaped entire localities, transformed local economies, and turned Delhi into the epicentre of the coaching industry.

But despite their numbers, IAS aspirants remain invisible in the city's electoral landscape. While the majority of them are migrants who do not vote in Delhi, the ones who do stay here echoed a list of common concerns, which they said resonate across the city's student community.

As the city heads to the polls on February 5, these young men and women - who pour billions into Delhi's economy - remain a quiet voice in shaping its governance.

On July 27, 2024, three IAS aspirants - Tanya Soni, Shreya Yadav, and Nevin Delvin - who were students at Rau's IAS Study Circle in Old Rajendra Nagar, drowned after the building's basement flooded following heavy rain. The illegally constructed space had no proper exits, and when the sewers outside overflowed, water poured in, trapping them inside. The tragedy triggered an outcry over unsafe coaching centres, lack of planning, and the government's failure to regulate an industry that thrives on student desperation.

Six months on, and students say that it's back to business as usual.

Those demands for change have faded. Despite promises of reform, coaching centres continue to operate in unsafe buildings, landlords still exploit students, and the infrastructure of these areas remains woefully inadequate.

Daksh Sharma, 24, an IAS aspirant from Karol Bagh, was studying in a coaching centre a few buildings away when tragedy struck in July. He will be voting in the elections, but says that coaching centres have not learnt their lesson. "We are not a priority because many of us are not voters here. Political parties know that no matter what happens to us, our voices are too few to matter," he said.

Rise of an industry