Umpteen reasons could be cited to give up when hurdles come across one’s way. Or stay scared before fate. Here, let’s take your attention to S L Harikumar, who now basks in the sweet success of winning a doctorate in Political Science from Kerala University.
Born visually-impaired, this assistant professor in Political Science cleared all the obstructions with his willpower and dedication to achieve his dream. He chose ‘Decentralisation and Development in Urban Local Government: A Study of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation 1995-2005’ as his topic.
Nowadays, when there are so many tools available to the aid of the visually-challenged with technological advancements, during his research process, Hari did not even go for referring Braille books.
“The Braille books are so expensive. So, I read with the help of a scribe. My guide was of immense support, he introduced the books, people and the methodology of doing research to me,” says Hari. He recorded the knowledge thus received by himself in Braille script.
His guide G Gopakumar, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Political Science, Kerala University, Kariavattom, too has only good words to say about his dear student. “I agreed to guide him on humanitarian consideration initially. Later, I found him to be an avid reader and a well-disciplined student. He was so patient to do the data collection and data analysis, which were so time-consuming. Keeping his disability apart, quality of research was never compromised,” says Gopakumar, who was for the first time guiding a person like Hari among the 26 people who completed their PhD under him.
Hari started the research work in 2004.
Never expect Hari to limit himself within the confines of the resources present a hop, skip and a jump away. To find sufficient literature, he travelled to Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) in Thrissur as directed by his guide. He interviewed 675 members of the public, 27 former ward councillors, three Mayors and Deputy Mayors each, whom he selected through random sampling from 27 out of the 81 wards in Thiruvananthapuram. To get sufficient material, he utilised the materials available at the Centre for Development Studies and the Central Archives here.
From the research, Hari found that in urban local bodies, decentralisation and development are vital concerns and development is affected by the negative attitude of people and the lack of collective approach. “The civil servants have to bring people’s issues into light and the attitude of the people also has to be changed. There must be a separate civil service for the Corporation. And the Corporation must carry out the resource mobilisation than depending on the state government entirely,” he says. Though his research focused on the ten years from 1995 to 2005, the findings can still be made applicable in environmental issues, city development, water distribution and so on, says Hari.
After clearing the UGC-National Eligibility Test (NET) and being granted the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in 2003, Hari worked as faculty with three colleges - Government Law College, Kozhikode; Government College Attingal and Government Arts College here, where he is now placed.
Throughout his journey, his father N Sadashivan Nair, a farmer, and mother T N Lalitha Bai accompanied their son. His twin brother S L Sreekumar, also visually-challenged, is also an assistant professor in Political Science, at University College, pursuing his research in ‘Faculty Improvement Programme.’ For the last three years, wife Viji V has also been with him through thick and thin. They have a son, one-year old Abhinav.
Now, the 33-year-old has started learning to use talking computer and gets updated with daily news this way. Quiz him on what his big dream is, Hari will say that, it is to get his thesis published.