Who said you can’t overcome odds at all costs? Ask Dashrath Pawar and Mohan Kale, who despite growing up in destitute conditions scored a first class in their Class X SSC exams.
Pawar and Kale study in the Signal School in Thane’s Teen Hath Naka, Mid Day reported. The school is named because it was built inside a revamped container at the busy junction under a flyover by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and NGO Samarth Bharat Vyaspeeth (SBV).
TMC and SBV started the school two years ago for children who beg or hawk at the signal. Kale and Pawar studied in the din of the traffic that passes on either side of the school, to score 77% and 65% respectively. Pawar’s parents are flower sellers, while Kale’s parents beg on the streets.
For Kale, the 77% signals a chance to break out of begging – something his family has been doing for three generations. A dropout after Class V, his family was relocated by the TMC as they wanted to construct the school. Initially he was angry, and wanted to get back at the children, but when he entered the school, a teacher made him sit and he never looked back. “I want to join an industrial training-related course and stop my mother from begging," he told Mid Day.
Meanwhile Pawar, who scored 60% said he wanted to join the police force. “Had my teachers not beaten up me for studies, I would never have got first class. I used to sleep a lot but teachers would scold me, and changed my schedule. They have done so many things for both of us. We are very lucky," he said.
A few months ago, Sreenath K, a coolie who cleared the written test of the Kerala Public Service Commission, the preparation is just about his phone and earphones as he goes about his job.
Sreenath has been earning his livelihood carrying heavy luggage at Ernakulam Junction in Kerala for the past five years..
Unlike his colleagues, he deftly balances the luggage on his shoulders and listens to his digital coursework at the same time - his teachers speaking to him through the earphones.
A high school pass-out, he took advantage of the free WiFi Internet service available at Ernakulam station to learn.
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