BHUBANESWAR: Crowdfunding helped an Odia dalit rapper of Koraput raise Rs 37 lakh for pursuing a course at the Oxford University in London.
Sumit Samos Turuk of Narayanpatna block applied for MSc in Modern South Asian Studies in Oxford’s St Antony’s College in November 2020 and was selected for the course in January this year.
The course fee for the one year programme is Rs 25 lakh, which excludes the living expenses of Rs 15 lakh. But Sumit’s father being a teacher at a primary school in Narayanpatna block could only manage Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for the course.
Unable to arrange for the rest, the 26-year-old youth decided to raise the amount through crowdfunding site Milaap following a suggestion by his friends.
“My friends from India and Pakistan who have studied in Oxford helped me in the entire process. About 1,500 people from India, United Kingdom and United States donated Rs 37 lakh within four to five hours of opening the fundraiser on June 1,” Sumit said.
He received Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh in every 15 minutes on the day.
“Though I need a few more lakhs, students of Oxford have requested the management to waive off some amount of the fee”, he said.
An alumni of Jeevan Jyoti Higher Secondary School in Semiliguda, Koraput, he pursued BA and MA in Spanish and Latin American literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi between 2012 and 2017.
Sumit was involved in student activism in JNU, has been raising his voice against caste discrimination through rap since 2017 and was part of French Radio Live show in Paris between 2018 and 2020.