Counselling for 305 seats was held on the opening day for the 5-year BA/ BL integrated courses. The process was inaugurated by Minister for Law K P Muniswamy.
When the counselling to the courses in six government law colleges began at the TN Dr Ambedkar Law University on Monday, K R Karuppannan, a farmer from Poothakudi village, near Alanganallur in Madurai district, must have felt a sense of satisfaction when he managed to get a seat for his daughter at the Government Law College.
A few years ago, it seemed impossible when he was unable to cough up money for his first daughter’s education. Money aside, he has also managed to break the shackles of prejudice against education of women that runs deep in society.
A relative of his, a criminal lawyer, questioned the need for her education. ‘Why do your girls need to be educated? Get them married off soon,’ the relative told him. It was this attitude that instigated 53-year-old Karuppannan to ensure that his three daughters receive proper education. While his first daughter is an engineering graduate, his second is studying bachelors in science at a college in Madurai. His first daughter, after graduating in electronics and communication engineering last year, went on to receive campus placement offers from two private IT companies.
Karuppannan recalls that he had to sell off a four-acre portions of his ancestral land to fund his daughters’ education. “I may not have much land today, but I am satisfied,” he said.
The desire to get his daughter educated was also visible in Thirukumaran from Alankulam village in Tenkasi district. “I belong to a family of farmers, a profession where returns are never expected and poverty imminent. It is only proper that I show my daughter the way out,” he said, with hope that she would secure a seat at the Govt Law College in Tirunelveli.