Super 26

Sarika Sharma

As his father would go around the village collecting scrap, Amarjit would sit dreaming at home. He would dream of becoming an engineer. Right now, he is living that dream. The 17-year-old is all set to pursue mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi, one of country’s topmost institutes. He is not the only one to make it to an ace professional institute. Along with him, 25 others students from economically weaker sections of society are living their dreams and have got admission to various IITs, IISERs and government medical colleges.

Out of the 19 students from non-medical stream, nine have gone to IITs and IISERs; and 10 have got admission in PEC and NITs. From the medical stream, three out of six have got admission in medical colleges, one is joining nursing and two others are set to join dental colleges. So what is it that makes this possible? The answer is both — a hardworking bunch of students and an untiring team of Bhai Jaitajee Foundation, a Chandigarh-based NGO.

BJF is driven by the idea that no child should be denied admission to an educational institute for want of resources. Since 2014, it has been holding a test held after Class X to identify the brightest of students from economically weaker sections across Punjab’s rural and semi-urban areas. They are then brought to Chandigarh for a two-year, free-of-cost coaching programme. Here they are admitted to a regular school, either St Soldier’s International School, Chandigarh, or AKSIPS, Mohali. It is here that they get what they have probably never got in life — individual attention and mentoring.

Instructors hired by the BJF teach the students. One matron for every five to six students is the average here. The day begins early for them and it begins with a healthy meal, which includes 10 almonds and milk. After school begins their coaching that has been producing success stories for the last four years. While they have hired some staff to teach them, there are those like RN Arora of RN Classes, who don’t charge for their guidance.

The entire evening is spent studying with one dinner break. While the privileged lot around us is consumed by TVs and phones, there is no such distraction for this group. The students too don’t feel the need to stray. They realise there are better things in life awaiting them. The trustees — BJF chairman BNS Walia, who is former director PGI, Harpal Singh, an engineer from Harvard University, and Rupinder Kaur — say the students are a well-behaved lot. Mostly quiet, these youngsters smile as they are praised; laugh out loud at jokes. Moga boy Navjit Singh, whose father is a store manager and mother a housewife, always wanted to be a pilot. However, chasing a dream would not have been easy with his father’s earning of Rs 11,000 a month. A BJF topper from the passing out batch, he has got into IIT Ropar. Harpreet Kaur, whose father runs a small-time hardware store in Mansa, has got admission into PEC, Chandigarh, and would pursue electrical engineering. 

Ask them about the hurdles in the two years spent here and English turns out to be the challenge for all of them. However, most of them have scored between 85 and 90 when it comes to marks in the subject! 

Till now, BJF has sent 70 students to various prestigious professional institutes across the country. However, trustees Walia and Singh feel 25 to 30 is too less a number to mentor every year. “There are so many more deserving candidates out there. We hope more like-minded people come together and help an even larger number of deserving but needy students from Punjab,” says Dr Walia. Glance through BJF toppers’ list and you know what bright students from EWS families could be missing out on. Most of these students are from scheduled caste, with family income below 14,000 per month and land holdings either miniscule or absent.

Amarjit’s father, a short and stocky man in his 40s, says all his kids — three daughters and a son, besides Amarjit — have been good students. However, he realises his son’s special achievement. BJF tells the parents of its scholars to identify five more bright students around them. Amarjit’s father says he will. He wants more youngsters to dream and to see them come true.