While struggling with humble means all his life, Vijay Kumar, a student of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, never once drifted from his dream.
However, it wasn’t until he was in Class 12 that the elusive moment, the proverbial quirk of fate he had been counting on, finally came.
He lost little time to sign up as a beneficiary of ‘Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana’, a big-ticket welfare scheme of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital aimed at providing free coaching to needy students and helping them meet their academic goals.
It was this scheme which gave Vijay wings to fly and a ticket to his dream destination — IIT, Delhi.
Thrilled to bits at being admitted to the hallowed campus and aware of the “responsibilities on him”, Vijay said,
“The (free) coaching I received helped me get a better understanding of the basics. Since I was in Class 12, I knew what I wanted. However, while many of my friends in private schools enrolled at reputed coaching institutes, I wasn’t sure if my means would ever allow me to chase my academic goals. Hence, when the opportunity came, I readily opted for this scheme. I’m hopeful of realising my dream and meeting the expectations of my parents.”
For his mother, Vimla Devi, who washes utensils to make a living, and father Kailash, who works at a tailoring shop, Vijay is their only hope of lifting the family out of poverty.
“We never imagined our son would someday make it to the IIT. He was always good in his studies but seeing him come this far was beyond all our expectations. His elder brother is also in college and we hope he achieves his goals as well. We’re very happy with his success and hope the government keeps helping more families like ours. We wanted to do all we can to help our children get the best education possible but simply didn’t have the means for it.
That’s when the government came forward as a caring parent,” his father said.
Acing competitive exam
“As far as I can remember, no one in my family had ever cracked a competitive exam, much less eye a career in such technical and specialised fields as engineering,” said a beaming Hari Om, the proud father of Himanshu, who scripted another remarkable success story with the help of the scheme.
It’s been barely two months since he secured admission to Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSUT), a premier institute for technical education in the national capital.
For the likes of Vijay, Himanshu and many others, this visionary scheme has been nothing short of a boon. The scheme has been tailored in a way as to nurse dreams of students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and low-income groups, who can’t summon funds to meet the soaring asking rates of private coaching institutes.
Himanshu and kin reside at Gemini Park, an unauthorised colony in the Najafgarh area. His father doesn’t have a full-time job and earns his bread by working as an electrician. However, his day’s earnings are solely reliant on the number of complaints he responds to. He said the “idea of free coaching” initially seemed too good to be true.
“It wasn’t until I my son enrolled for this scheme that I believed that he would actually get free coaching. In this day and age when higher education has become a lucrative business for some and a scarcely affordable option for others, it’s hard to believe that a government would care about needy children,” Hari Om said.
“I personally visited the coaching centre twice and talked to people running it, as I feared they might charge us once the coaching module ends. Those visits helped convince me on the sincerity of this initiative,” he said.
With the family’s hopes pinned on its ‘elder son’, Himanshu is pursuing BTech in ECE (electronics and communications engineering) and is busy adapting to college life. He said he has his eyes set on ‘good grades’ in his first semester.
“I got to know about the scheme after my school principal sought to know if they were any SC students among us and then went on to give us a lowdown on this scheme. Though my aim was to crack the competitive exam through self-study, I thought about visiting the coaching centre once as it wouldn’t cost me a penny. I slowly grew to loving the ambience there. The teachers were supportive and the coaching helped me a lot,” Himanshu said.
Cracking JEE (Main)
Living in the cramped, dingy bylanes of Dharampuri on Pankha Road, Amarjeet, too, nursed a dream. After cracking the JEE (Main) two months ago, the 17-year-old is now living his dream of being admitted to the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Delhi. Both his parents — mother Kavita and father Sohan Lal — are daily wagers. Sending their son to a dream institute was beyond their means and dreams till a few years back.
“My son has always been good at learning and we had our hopes on him to pull us out of the rut someday. When he said he wanted to sign up for free coaching, our only concern was that he might lose focus on school. But we left it to him. The scheme did prove beneficial for him.
We hope more needy students would enrol for this scheme and derive the benefits to be had,” his father said.
For Amarjeet, the challenging part was to find a balance between school and coaching. “Our coaching classes were scheduled three days a week. I made it a point to visit my tuition classes on Sundays and public holidays,” Amarjeet said.
Clearing obstacles
Jyoti Dubey, branch manager, Sachdeva Institute, Uttam Nagar, which is among the institutes enrolled for the scheme, said, “The toughest part is to convince parents to send their wards to these tuition classes. I studied in a government school and know the issues plaguing students at such schools. Hence, I was able to understand their problems and come up with solutions.”
Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, the architect of the scheme, said the inspiration to launch the initiative came from the Father of the Constitution and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.
“If Shivaji Rao Gaikwad had not awarded a scholarship to Baba Saheb, he wouldn’t have been able to venture overseas for higher education and do what he did for the country. It was the thought of doing something similar which drove us to launch this project. We believe no child should be left behind or wanted for money when it comes to learning opportunities. We are doing our best towards this end,” Gautam said.
His department is now planning to extend the benefits to OBC (Other Backward Classes) and EWS (Economically Weaker Section) students.
It is also considering extending the span of the coaching module from four months to a year and hike the fees it sends to the enrolled centres, depending on the range of subjects they offer free tuitions in.“Now that our scheme has met with an encouraging response, we will introduce more changes going forward in a bid to extend the benefits to more children and draw more institutes within the ambit of our scheme,” the minister said.
‘Ambedkar was the inspiration’
Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, the architect of the scheme, said the inspiration to launch the initiative came from the Father of the Constitution and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.
He said, “If Shivaji Rao Gaikwad had not awarded a scholarship to Baba Saheb, he wouldn’t have been able to venture overseas for higher education and do what he did for the country. It was the thought of doing something similar which drove us to launch this project.” He said the aim is to reach out to every needy child.