Bhubaneshwar: Beating all odds, as many as 14 underprivileged students from Odisha cracked one of the toughest examinations in the country - National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). Thanks to the efforts of Zindagi Foundation, run by 47-year-old Ajaya Bahadur Singh, who had ensured that financial limitations do not deter the candidates from achieving their dreams.
Singh, who had dreams of becoming a doctor but had to drop out due to family obligations, started the 'Zindagi' Foundation in 2017, to provide aid to the underprivileged students to become doctors.
Modelled along the lines of Super 30, a record-setting program run by the acclaimed mathematician Anand Kumar, Zindagi is specifically set for students that are highly talented but have financial limitation to undertake the highly-expensive tuition classes.
"Of 20 students, 18 had cleared the NEET last year while 12 students secured admission in government medical colleges in Odisha," Singh told reporters in a press conference.
Singh aspired to become a doctor but family obligations prevented him from pursuing higher education. His family was forced to sell their property on account of a kidney transplant of Singh's father. Singh sold tea to support his family and completed his graduation from Sociology Honours.
"I always wanted to be a doctor and I was preparing for it as well. But my studies suffered due to my father's kidney failure. I started my career by selling tea and syrup. After completing intermediate education, I used to sell soda making machine. I also gave tuitions to support my education," he said.
After overcoming the financial crisis, Singh pledged to lend a helping hand to needy students in realising their dreams.
"When I am now in a good condition, I think I should find helpless students who could not afford to pay for their studies. Poor students can join our foundation, the expenses of their accommodation, food, studies and coaching of medical entrance examinations are borne by us," he told the media.
"This year I taught 14 students and they all cleared the NEET exam," Singh added.
"My mother is selling 'Kakara Pitha' (a sweet deep-fried cake) to the ISKON temple here to eke out a living. My father, who was a carpenter, died in a road accident when I was in class sixth. After completing my Plus Two, I wanted to study medical but had no money to support my education. Ajay sir supported me to realise my dream," said Krishna Mohanty, who has secured 15,295 all-India rank in NEET.
Among the 14 students of Zindagi, Aniruddha Nayak who hails from Narasinghpur area of Cuttack district secured the highest rank in Singh's 2018 batch with All India Rank (AIR) of 5662.
Besides these two, Abanikant Swain (8582), Sailendu Raut (9196), Sai Gourav Mohapatra (10558), Sudhansu Priyadarshini (14831), Krishna Mohanty (15295), Omm Singh (16501), Amiya Ranjan Das (25361), Rutuparna Malla (35265), Jaya Prakash Panda (36900), Manas Ranjan Mishra (47571), Rakesh Kumar Rout (63502), Happin Pattanayak (65010) and Namrata Panda (72778) qualified the exam.
"I will not take any 'Gurudakshina' from my students. I only want my students to treat poor patients free of cost," Singh expressed.
Over 14 lakh students appeared for NEET exam this year, 7,95,031 candidates living in India qualified the exam while 315 foreign nationals, 1,209 NRIs, 441 candidates holding OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India), and 46 PIOs (Persons of Indian Origin) cleared the exam.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of NEET 2019 on June 5.
