Ansuiya, a labour worker’s daughter, from Uttar Pradesh’s Badera village, overcame a series of seemingly insurmountable odds to score 100% in the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 exams, the results of which were declared on Friday.
A student of Vidyagyan Bulandshahr, a free residential school for economically backward meritorious students from rural Uttar Pradesh run by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, Ansuiya said she is grateful for the opportunity to complete school, which is often a privilege in her village.
“None of the girls in our village study beyond Class 8,” said the 17-year-old.
“After school, they are groomed to become someone’s wife and await marriage. I have always been interested in studying, because I thought that it is something that will help me stand apart from others. That is how I cleared the application process for Vidyagyan as well,” she said.
One of seven siblings, Ansuiya joined the school in 2014 when she was in Class 6.
“Even boys in our village study till Class 8. After that, they are supposed to help their fathers in factories or work as labourer at farms in the village. When I got an opportunity to leave the village to study, my parents supported me. However, there were many in the village who taunted my parents saying that their daughter will go ‘out of their hands’. But my parents never let these taunts get the better of them,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“Even boys in our village study till Class 8. After that, they are supposed to help their fathers in factories or work as labourer at farms in the village. When I got an opportunity to leave the village to study, my parents supported me. However, there were many in the village who taunted my parents saying that their daughter will go ‘out of their hands’. But my parents never let these taunts get the better of them,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Ansuiya, a humanities student, wants to be an officer in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
“I want to work for my village, which I think is very underdeveloped compared to other parts of the state. Here health, education are neglected and even the soil is not fertile,” she said.
Ansuiya’s father works as a labourer at the village farms but when the monsoon is not kind, he has to look for work as a daily wage earner in industrial areas in the Mahoba district.