CHENNAI: When A Rajeshwari, a tribal girl, walks on the hallowed corridors of an Indian Institute of Technology soon, she will be living her own dream, and one her father held close to his heart till he succumbed to cancer a year ago.
A Aundi, her dad who belonged to the Malayali (Scheduled Tribe) community of Karumandurai, a village located 65km from Salem in the Kalvarayan Hills with a 90% tribal population, could study only up to Class 8 due to poverty and seasonal migration.
Determined that his four children should have a different future, Aundi took up tailoring and toiled hard to provide them with a stable education, ably supported by his wife Kavitha. He succeeded in making his first two children undergraduates, which in itself is no mean feat.
If he had not died in 2024, Aundi would have not only witnessed the proudest moment of his life but also the beginning of a transformation in the lives of his family as his third child Rajeshwari will make history by becoming the first tribal student from a Government Tribal Residential School run by the state government to enter into an IIT, most likely IIT-Madras.
The girl from Government Tribal Residential Higher Secondary School in Karumandurai, has secured an all-India rank of 417 under the Scheduled Tribes category in the JEE Advanced results published on Monday.
Rajeshwari has a bright chance of getting IIT-M seat
With the closing ST rank for admission to IIT-Madras in 2024 being 1,691, officials of the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare (ADTW) Department and her school teachers are confident that Rajeshwari, a tribal girl student from Tamil Nadu, stands a strong chance of securing a seat at the premier institute. However, gaining admission into the Computer Science or Electrical Engineering streams may be difficult.
Thanks to the Tamil Nadu government’s focused efforts to train students from remote tribal regions, several students from the 28 Government Tribal Residential (GTR) schools have secured admission in National Institutes of Technology in recent years. Rajeshwari, however, is the first among them to crack JEE Advanced and become eligible for admission into an IIT.
Hailing from a poor tribal family, Rajeshwari credited her teachers for guiding her through the competitive exam process. “My siblings were good at studies but didn’t know about JEE. My teachers supported me,” she said. Her father, who prioritised education, passed away during her schooling. Her elder brother Sriganesh took up tailoring to support the family, while her mother continues to work as a daily wager. Rajeshwari scored 438/500 in Class 10 and 521/600 in Class 12. She chose the Maths-Biology group to keep professional options open.
“She’s always had an excellent aptitude, especially in Chemistry and Mathematics,” said D Vijayan, headmaster of her school. Her teachers provided special coaching and familiarised her with the JEE pattern. For JEE Advanced, she attended a government-run residential coaching camp in Perundurai, Erode district. Rajeshwari is currently undergoing a preparatory programme at Eklavya Model Residential School, Kumizhi, for training in spoken English and soft skills to help her transition smoothly into an IIT environment.
Vijayan said the ADTW department’s continuous efforts — including counselling parents, waiving application fees, and arranging coaching — have enabled this success. “This achievement will inspire more tribal students to dream big,” Rajeshwari said.