Posted: 22/08/2010
On 20th August, Mahesh and Mahinder, two students from Asha slums, made us proud by being the first slum children to receive places at two of India’s top engineering colleges – the most impressive academic achievement by any of our students so far. Mahesh, from Dr. Ambedkar Basti, was admitted at Delhi Technological University (DTU), a highly-reputed college that scored 7th in academic environment, and 8th in job placements and curriculum innovation among the top 10 engineering colleges of India.
Mahesh and Mahinder proudly display their admission papers
Mahinder was admitted to Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology which was rated the best engineering college in the state of Uttar Pradesh by The Times Research Education Excellence Award-2010 and 42nd in all India by Competition Success Review & Global Human Resource Centre-2010. Mahesh was one of the 910 students to be selected out of the 900,000 who took the examination, and Mahinder was one of only 0.45% who were selected after taking the exam.
Like many slum children, Mahesh and Mahinder attended government schools with poor facilities, few learning resources, and low quality teaching. Despite these obstacles, it became apparent to Dr. Martin and the Asha staff that both were talented, committed and keen to learn. They dreamt of being engineers but didn’t have the right subjects or good teachers, and their parents weren’t able to spare money for school fees.
Dr Martin has known both boys since they were very young and has always taken an interest in their educational futures. She helped the boys gain admission to Ramjas School, a private school, and also arranged for Mahesh and Mahinder to attend FITJEE, a special coaching institute for the competitive engineering exams required for aspiring B.E/B.TECH students in India. FITJEE fees are prohibitively expensive even for students who are from better-off families, so Asha paid their coaching fees as well as their school fees, and also arranged for their books, guides, tuitions and counselling during the last few years.
Both children were long-term and enthusiastic members of their respective children’s groups (Mahesh served as his group’s President), providing leadership and increasing awareness on important issues within their communities. They encouraged their peers not to drop out of school and to take advantage of Asha’s additional educational opportunities like English and computer classes.
Mahesh and Mahinder are both extremely grateful to Dr. Martin, the Asha staff and all our supporters for their assistance and encouragement leading up to their college admission. They promise to remain committed to helping other children and fulfilling their educational dreams, and hope that they can be role models to the next generation of students. They know that they will need to continue working very hard in college as they will be competing against some of the top aspiring engineers in the country.
Mahinder at a recent meeting with Mr P Chidambaram, India's Home Minister
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Since I’ve been involved with Asha I’ve learnt so much about health and how I can help my neighbours. I’ve also learnt to speak English, and I know how to use computers as well - I have a much better chance of getting a good job when I leave school.
Parimal, Peer Educator, Kalkaji
