Govt initiative, hardwork sees 93 overcome economic barriers to crack JEE-Advanced

HYDERABAD: As many as 93 students from social and tribal welfare residential educational institutions have overcome poverty to crack the IIT-JEE (Advanced) this year. Of the 93, around 20 social and 27 tribal welfare residential students are expected to secure admission in the IITs while the remaining 46 students are set to get into IIT’s preparatory courses.
A significant number of these successful students are first generation learners from villages, tribal hamlets and are sons and daughters of auto drivers, masons, tea sellers, landless labourers among others. “With severe financial constraints, providing IIT coaching to my son was beyond my capacity. If not for the government’s support, my son wouldn’t have realised his dream,” said Susheela whose son A Venkatesh secured 23rd rank in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
Vidwan Gagan, who secured all-India 847 rank in the SC category, said that he had opted for the tribal welfare residential college since his parents could not afford the fee for IIT coaching. “My father is an auto driver and our family has to survive with a monthly income Rs 7,000. When I heard about the government providing coaching for IIT exam, I tried my luck and got selected in the screening test,” recalled Gagan. Now, he wants to pursue his engineering in computer science from IIT-Delhi.
The students have also managed to better their performance when compared with last year as 36 students had secured seats in IITs last year. “This success means a lot to them and their families,” said R S Praveen Kumar, secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society.