Gandhian student in Gujarat snips hair to meet expenses

The best way to find your self is to lose yourself in the service of others — Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi’s ideas are respected but seldom acted on by today’s youth who consider them impractical for their consumerist times. But Yogesh Pawar, 24, is an exception.

A student of Gujarat Vidyapith, he works part time as a barber for students and teachers of the institute, and uses the money to pay for the extra expenses of research work.

Pawar comes from a small village, Netarang, in Bharuch district. He decided to become a barber for fellow students at the Vidyapith almost immediately after he arrived there to study for a Masters degree in Social work.

“My family manages to send me the money for my college fees,” he said. “But there are always extra expenses that have to be paid for. These include money for tea and snacks consumed during field work, the cost of typing and printing the research thesis for submission, and travel expenses. I did not want to burden my parents for these expenses, which is why I decided to work as a barber for just 1-2 hours every day.”

While his annual college fee is around Rs12,000, his extra expenses come to around Rs800 which he is able to earn from his work as a barber.

“Most students at Gujarat Vidyapith are like me in that they, too, come from rural areas,” Pawar said. “They spend nearly Rs50 every month on shaving and hair-cuts at saloons outside the campus. As this is expensive, I became a barber to help my fellow students cut down on this one expense.”

Pawar had started with his roommates but today he is the ‘unofficial barber’ (for hair cuts and shaving) of the Vidyapith’s students, teachers, sweepers, the rector and his kids and even the vice-chancellor.

“Some time back some girl students had also approached me for hair cut,” Pawar said with a grin. “But because of paucity of appropriate space and timing restrictions, I could not oblige them.”