BHUBANESWAR: Rayagada’s Kashipur block remains Odisha’s dark underbelly. Starvation death, cholera, sorcery and malnutrition are some of the things that come to mind naturally when Kashipur is mentioned. But then, there are days when someone like Sunand Jhodia makes you believe there is still hope beyond these maladies.
The 27-year-old native of Badamari Bhatta village of Kashipur, about 56 km from Rayagada town, has become the first from the tribal-dominated district to crack the civil services. Belonging to the Jhodia tribal community, still fighting to get scheduled tribe (ST) status, he is a man entirely of his own making.
A BTech graduate from IIT, Dhanbad, Sunand secured 1046th rank in the all India merit list and is all set to get into the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Years of struggle and single-minded focus to excel has brought him success.
Son of a BPL farmer, Sunand studied at the village primary school till Class V. The family struggled to make their ends meet and fund for his studies. In spite of being a good student, he never applied for scholarship as he was simply not aware of it. His teachers were very supportive though. One such teacher Prabhashini Preyashi provided him books which helped him get through to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) at Koraput.
“Had I not got admission in JNV, I would never have cracked IIT in 2007 because that opened the vistas for me,” says Sunand who is now in Delhi.
He took up BTech in Mining Engineering at IIT, Dhanbad. In the second year, Sunand lost his father but did not lose hope. After graduating from IIT, he worked with Coal India at Kolkata in 2012 but by then, he wanted to appear for the civil services and quit the job because it did not give him enough time.
He shifted base to Delhi where he was on his own. He rented a house and studied on his own. It was the then BJD MP Jayaram Pangi helped him. He was allowed to stay at the MP’s official quarters and prepare.
However, not being socially-oriented, his preparation was hampered. When Pangi’s tenure ended in 2014, Sunand had to look for alternatives. Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, a mango farmer from his district and well-wisher of his father, supported his preparation then.
Today, he has achieved what he wanted and is ecstatic. “Last night, I tried to call my mother to convey the result but could not get through to her since there was no mobile network in the village. I spoke to her this morning. She is happy and so is my elder brother,” he says. His brother Ashedhar took up farming after his father’s death.
The Jhodias shot to headlines in 1991 when Sumani Jhodia, a lady from the tribal community launched a fight against alcohol which impressed the then Chief Minister Biju Patnaik who appointed her as his personal advisor.