A Dalit boy, who has been allotted a seat in the first year MBBS course in Salem Government Medical College on merit with a cut off mark of 196, is in a dilemma.
With stark poverty staring him in the face, Nagaraj Mohanraj of Pothiamapatti village in Taramangalam near here, whose livelihood is depending on the meagre wages his family members earn from the village-based coir industries, is not sure whether his dream of becoming a doctor could be realised at all.
Nagaraj, who studied at the Taramanagalam Sengunthar MHSS, scored 1,093 marks out of 1,200 with 198 in biology, 196 in physics and 192 in chemistry in Plus-Two. “In fact I got a seat in Stanley Medical College. But I preferred the Salem Government Medical College since I can avoid hostel and other expenses,” he said. But with his family struggling to meet even the basic day-to-day needs, his ambition to pursue medical education hang in balance.
“My mother Pounambal kindled the ambition of becoming a doctor in me so that I can serve the poor. She struggled day and night in coir units to earn a paltry Rs. 60 per day, which hardly met my school expenses,” he says. His father's earning met the family's food requirements.
To supplement their income, he joined them in coir units after school hours.
Even to attend the counselling in Chennai he had to take loan from a money lender. His elder sister has been married and another one is studying for B.Com in Mettur Arts College.
A senior officer in education department here says that besides Mohanraj, many socially and economically backward rural students in Salem and Namakkal districts have got admissions in various government medical colleges on merit this year.
Ranjithkumar from a government home in Salem was admitted in Madras Medical College while Govindaraj of Edapadi, a worker in brick kiln, got admitted in Tuticorin Medical College. Gayathri of Paramathi Velur in Namakkal district, daughter of a load man, Prabakaran of Edapadi, a weaver's son and Sakthimani, daughter of a hair-dresser in Edapadi, too have entered medical education.
