KOZHIKODE: Till June 29 this year, Radhika K K had not heard about the national-level Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) conducted by a consortium of 22 national law universities across the country.
After Plus-Two, the resident of Kallurkunnu Kattunayaka colony at Valluvadi, Sultan Bathery, attended the first-of-its-kind CLAT special crash course for students of her community on June 29.
It was organised by District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and Integrated Tribal Development Programme (ITDP). But when the CLAT-2020 result came on Tuesday, Radhika created history, becoming the first girl from her community to get through a national law examination.
“The crash course that commenced at Model Residential School (MRS) at Kaniyampatta was for a month but extended two more months due to Covid. It was very useful. The course instilled confidence in me,” she told TNIE.
She secured 1,022 rank in the ST category of CLAT which was attended by a total of 59,000 students. Radhika comes from a colony where the top office holding person is a primary school teacher. She completed higher secondary from Rajiv Gandhi MRS, Noolpuzha, scoring 70 per cent marks.
“It is a great achievement in the history of Kattunayaka tribe, which comes under Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). It would give a big boost to other aspirants from the community. When informed about commencing such a crash course, Wayanad district collector had full given support,” said A C Cheriyan, ITDP Wayanad district project officer.
ITDP had borne all expenses for the crash course and it will continue financial support to Radhika for further studies.
As many as nine students attended the course, including seven girls. “It is yet to be known in which law college Radhika will get admission. The nearest are National University of Advanced Legal Studies in Kochi and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru,” said tribal mentor Vineetha B. Radhika is the daughter of Kariyan and Bindu.