Offers of help are pouring in for Nitish Kumar Mahato who aced the Jharkhand board exams , juggling studies with work as a security guard to fund his education and sustain his mother and younger sister.
A day after HT reported how the 16-year-old boy scored 87.60% in the Jharkhand Class 10 board results, several readers contacted HT seeking Nitish’s contact details and expressed their desire to help him..
Moved by his inspiring story, readers also shared his story widely on social media.
Abhisekh Sharma, who identified himself as a UK-based surgeon, mailed HT and offered to help Nitish, who lost his father last year when he had just stepped into Class 10.
“I am a surgeon based out of London. I have had my 10+2 schooling in Ranchi and I would like to help the local boy,” Sharma said.
The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) party, an ally of the ruling BJP in the state, too has stepped forward to help Nitish.
AJSU leaders met Nitish at Shantiniketan Apartment in capital Ranchi’s Morhabadi locality. Nitish lives with his mother and sister in a guard’s room in the apartment. Nitish’s father was a security guard in the apartment and Nitish took up his job.
{{/usCountry}}AJSU leaders met Nitish at Shantiniketan Apartment in capital Ranchi’s Morhabadi locality. Nitish lives with his mother and sister in a guard’s room in the apartment. Nitish’s father was a security guard in the apartment and Nitish took up his job.
{{/usCountry}}“He does not have to worry about the expenses incurred on his education anymore. We will meet all his educational expenses and help him realise his dream of becoming an engineer,” said AJSU president Sudesh Mahato.
A few NGOs too came forward to assist Nitish.
When Nitish lost his father, acquaintances thought he would give up studies and go back to his village in Silli block (about 45km from Ranchi) where survival would be easier. But he stayed back in the town and school to realise his father’s dream of seeing him don an engineer’s hat.
AJSU leader Subodh Prasad said, “We have offered Nitish two choices — join the Silli Polytechnic College or join a good Plus II school in Ranchi, take tuitions/ coaching for IIT entrance. We will pay the fees.”
Nitish has sought time to take a final call. His mother, Salu Devi, insists he should continue his studies in any Plus II school and take the entrance tests for admission in an IIT. She is also keen on her daughter, Raj Kumari, who is in Class 9 in a government residential school, emulating Nitish’s success.
Though his present school, St John’s has Plus II affiliation, Nitish has also applied for admission in St Xavier’s College. “I would prefer St Xavier’s if I get a seat,” he said.
Nitish has not let limited resources come in the way of his dreams. He said he had appealed for a fee waiver in school, but it did not come through.
He also had only one pair of school uniform. In the run-up to the Class 10 examination, he took tuitions in mathematics, his favourite subject, and paid for it by saving money from his salary.