U.P. Police Constable Exam: When hope and desperation collide
Vishal Maurya boarded the Ganga Sutlej Express at Akbarpur Junction in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) on June 8. The 22-year-old was headed to Lucknow, 194 kilometres
Vishal Maurya boarded the Ganga Sutlej Express at Akbarpur Junction in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) on June 8. The 22-year-old was headed to Lucknow, 194 kilometres away by rail. Across the seven-hour journey, what played in Maurya’s head on loop was a plea. All he wanted was to pass the constable-rank examination to be held on June 10 in Uttar Pradesh’s capital. Maurya is from Ghughurpatti in Ambedkar Nagar district, and passed out of school four years ago. If he gets through the test, he hopes to change the lives of his parents and lift generations of disadvantages off their shoulders. His parents work as agricultural labourers in their village, and don’t own land. “When they find work, they earn ₹300. I aspire to change their fortunes. I studied diligently for the exam, inspired by my online teacher who shares motivational stories of youths from similar backgrounds who have succeeded in becoming constables,” Maurya said. He added that for generations they had “lived a life of inferiority”. This was an opportunity “for people like us to change our lives”. Maurya is a first-generation learner. He works part-time as a construction labourer. On June 9, he was in Lucknow’s Charbagh railway station, with thousands of others who had arrived to take the exam. Charbagh is Lucknow’s main railway station, situated in the heart of the U.P. capital, just 3 km from Hazratganj, the downtown area and main shopping centre of Lucknow. Hazratganj remained overcrowded with candidates for the U.P. constabulary posts written examination. Held across June 8-10, all trains departing from or arriving at the station were fully booked. Thousands of U.P. constable aspirants stand on the floors, with many sitting in the lavatories of the trains. On the platforms, there is barely any space to walk. Thousands queue up to charge their phones via a few dozen charging points. In the last week of December, 2025, U.P. notified 32,679 posts of police constables and equivalent positions, the lowest category of the workforce under the State police force. The registration process, which began on December 31, 2025, and ended on January 30, 2026, led to 28.86 lakh aspirants filling the form to appear in the written test at 1,183 centres across 75 districts. More than 1.35 lakh candidates were allocated test centres in Lucknow. The platform of possibility At the train station, Maurya’s story found resonance with a stranger, Vaibhav Chaudhary, 24, from Gorakhpur, a B.Tech graduate in Computer Science. Screen-locking his OPPO A3x5G smartphone, he said, “Everyone in this sea of people has a story filled with urgency, desperation, hope, and aspiration for this job. While taking the exam, I thought of my 15-year-old sister and the need to provide her with better educational opportunities, so she won’t have to struggle as I did.” Chaudhary battled the 40 degrees Celsius heat in a yellow vest. He was returning from Barabanki, about 20 km from Lucknow, after taking the recruitment examination. To be eligible to qualify, people must be between 18 and 27 years, depending on the job, gender, and reservation, and have passed class 12, the highest school examination.
The BriefWire