How they overcame poverty to crack IIT
21 Jun 2014 5:32 AM IST
Most stories these days make you despair. This one is a story of hope. Of steely determination in the midst of what looked like insurmountable odds. 39 students from economically marginalised backgrounds, sponsored by GAIL’s flagship education programme Utkarsh, have made it to the most coveted and prestigious engineering institutions of the country – the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
In what is considered to be one of the toughest entrance examinations in the world, 91 out of 100 students qualified in IIT Mains this year and 39 out of 91 cleared the IIT Advance round, all supported by GAIL (India) Ltd as part of its CSR intervention Utkarsh, in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. These students come from rural backgrounds whose parents are small/marginalised farmers or daily wage earners. They have done their schooling from government schools.
As part of Utkarsh, every year 100 meritorious students from economically underprivileged background from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are screened through a rigorous process of written test and interviews. Once the students are finalised, these students are provided free residential coaching and mentoring scholarship programme for 11 months. The part scholarship is continued to students who make it to the IITs for the entire duration of 4 years.
Vivek from Varanasi says, ‘I come from a small village near Varanasi which is far away from the city. My father is a small farmer and his income did not permit me to afford private coaching. One day my fortune took a turn as I came to know about GAIL Utkarsh SUPER 100 through my favorite teacher. I sat for the test and cleared the interview. Thanks to Abhyanand Sir for his able guidance and mentoring, I cleared the IIT entrance exam. I am grateful to CSRL and GAIL for this unique programme.’
Then there is this 14-year-old from Bihar’s Rohtas district. Shivanand, the son of a farmer, passed his class 12 exam this year with 93.4%, and got special permission to sit for the IIT-JEE.
He ranked 2,587.
‘We are proud of him. He has done something very special at this age,’ Shivanand’s father Kamlakant Tiwari, a resident of Dharampur village, said. Shivanand said he wanted to pursue research in physics. ‘I am keen on becoming a scientist,’ he said.
In faraway Mumbai, all Ramashankar Yadav, a bus driver, knows is that his twin sons have cleared an exam. What he cannot comprehend is that the exam in question is the JEE-Advanced and how his sons have now embarked on a path which may see the family’s fortunes undergo a sea change.
‘My parents only know that we have passed the exam but they don’t understand the importance of the same. For my brother and me, this is our first step towards attaining our goals. We both want to become researchers,’ said Ram Yadav (18).
While Ram has secured the 267 rank in the OBC category, his brother Shyam has got rank 1,816 in the same category. Born and brought up in a small slum in Bhiwandi, their father’s only aim was to earn enough to make sure his family is fed. With his monthly salary of Rs. 8,000, he somehow also managed to fund the basic education of his four sons over the years.
In what is considered to be one of the toughest entrance examinations in the world, 91 out of 100 students qualified in IIT Mains this year and 39 out of 91 cleared the IIT Advance round, all supported by GAIL (India) Ltd as part of its CSR intervention Utkarsh, in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. These students come from rural backgrounds whose parents are small/marginalised farmers or daily wage earners. They have done their schooling from government schools.
As part of Utkarsh, every year 100 meritorious students from economically underprivileged background from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are screened through a rigorous process of written test and interviews. Once the students are finalised, these students are provided free residential coaching and mentoring scholarship programme for 11 months. The part scholarship is continued to students who make it to the IITs for the entire duration of 4 years.
Vivek from Varanasi says, ‘I come from a small village near Varanasi which is far away from the city. My father is a small farmer and his income did not permit me to afford private coaching. One day my fortune took a turn as I came to know about GAIL Utkarsh SUPER 100 through my favorite teacher. I sat for the test and cleared the interview. Thanks to Abhyanand Sir for his able guidance and mentoring, I cleared the IIT entrance exam. I am grateful to CSRL and GAIL for this unique programme.’
Then there is this 14-year-old from Bihar’s Rohtas district. Shivanand, the son of a farmer, passed his class 12 exam this year with 93.4%, and got special permission to sit for the IIT-JEE.
He ranked 2,587.
‘We are proud of him. He has done something very special at this age,’ Shivanand’s father Kamlakant Tiwari, a resident of Dharampur village, said. Shivanand said he wanted to pursue research in physics. ‘I am keen on becoming a scientist,’ he said.
In faraway Mumbai, all Ramashankar Yadav, a bus driver, knows is that his twin sons have cleared an exam. What he cannot comprehend is that the exam in question is the JEE-Advanced and how his sons have now embarked on a path which may see the family’s fortunes undergo a sea change.
‘My parents only know that we have passed the exam but they don’t understand the importance of the same. For my brother and me, this is our first step towards attaining our goals. We both want to become researchers,’ said Ram Yadav (18).
While Ram has secured the 267 rank in the OBC category, his brother Shyam has got rank 1,816 in the same category. Born and brought up in a small slum in Bhiwandi, their father’s only aim was to earn enough to make sure his family is fed. With his monthly salary of Rs. 8,000, he somehow also managed to fund the basic education of his four sons over the years.
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