Deceased farmer’s son scores 88%

PUNE: Fergusson College student Vitthal Kale never had it easy.

His father committed suicide after failure to repay farm loans when Vitthal was in Class IX. After his father’s death, his mother developed mental disorder. However, Vitthal never gave in to the person tragedies and emerged triumphant with 88.46% marks in Arts stream on Wednesday.

“I want to become an IAS officer,” the boy said. “No

student

should be deprived of education. Once I become an IAS officer, I will make sure that meritorious students coming from poor families have easy access to education,” he added.

Vitthal completed his studies till Class VII in Jalna and went to Beed to study till Class X. “My first experience in Pune wasn’t good,” the boy said, adding that the government boys hostel in Yerawada admitted him much later after his admission, which meant he had to stay on his friends’ mercy in their rooms. “There was no money and nobody to help. It was a hard time,” Vitthal said.

He said something needs to be done to make sure that farmers do not commit suicide. “They need to be made aware of the problems their families face after they are gone. My father had a taken a loan of less than Rs 1 lakh,” Vitthal added.