Social welfare schools prepped poor students to blaze a trail

Hyderabad: There was a time when Eswar Battula could not even afford his school fee. Today, he is a senior data scientist in Malaysia.
The secret of his success? Eswar attributes it to the education received at the social welfare institutions.
Eswar studied at the AP Social Welfare School, Ardhaveedu, in AP's Prakasam district, and did his Intermediate from Social Welfare Junior College (IIT-LTCD), Nagole, Hyderabad, in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
"I am lucky that I got a platform to fulfil my dreams. Otherwise, I would have not even known what IIT is," Eswar told TOI, adding that his situation would been no different from many of his childhood friends who still work on farms or do small jobs if not for the education he received.
Eswar, who completed B Tech in biochemical engineering in 2013, said his parents worked as farm labourers and struggled to send him money for his personal expenses when he was studying at IIT-Kharagpur."While the first year fee was paid by my alma mater, I took a loan to pay the fee for the remaining years. Now, after 10 years of completing graduation, I am well settled," said Eswar who works at AirAsia.Like Eswar, hundreds of alumni of social welfare institutes are working in top MNCs such as Infosys, Capgemini, Deloitte, Reliance Jio in India and abroad. Some are successful businessmen and others are in governments jobs, marine engineers, armed forces, customs and police.
"For us, affordability was definitely an issue. That's the reason why I was enrolled in social welfare school and junior college. I got access to all resources, including the best faculty, which helped me to get a seat at IIT Kanpur. It changed my life completely," said K Bopya Naik, who is working at Swiss Reinsurance GBS India private limited in Bengaluru.
Naik, who completed his graduation in 2022, said that his parents are small farmers in Sanga Reddy district and he is glad that the education at social welfare schools unlocked the doors to a bright future.
V Rajasekhar, another alumnus of social welfare junior college, who runs an engineering component business with a turnover of about Rs 5 crore per annum, said: "The two years I spent in Intermediate helped me get into National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi. Now, I also run an NGO SEEDS (Social Educational Entrepreneurship Development Society) to help poor students like me get IIT and NEET coaching."