Tribal students, belonging to small farming families from remote villages of Gadchiroli and Melghat in Maharashtra, have cleared the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET UG 2021) and are soon expected to start undergraduate degree courses in medicine. Suraj Pungati (19), a resident of Nagargunda village in Bhamragad taluka of Gadchiroli, is happy to have surpassed his own expectations by scoring 378 out of 720 in NEET.
Talking to news agency PTI, the student said that he is probably the first person in his taluka to attend a medical college. Pungati, the son of a farmer, said there are over 60 families in his village and he is the first amongst them to take up science. The student, who belongs to 'Mariya Gond', a particularly vulnerable tribal group in the state, lost his mother four years ago and has a younger brother who is now in Class 10.
Pungati studied at a school in Nagpur and scored 92 per cent in his Class 10 board exams in 2019, that is when he decided to become a doctor. Another tribal student, Sawan Shilaskar (21), the son of a marginal farmer from a small village called Ghota in Dahrni taluka of Melghat region in Amaravati district, has scored 294 out of 720 in NEET.
The journey for both the students was tough but a ray of hope for them were coaching classes taken by MBBS students and doctors in Pune through an NGO called Lift For Upliftment (LFU). The NGO is an initiative of the student and alumni network of the BJ Medical College in the city.
The LFU operates for underprivileged and marginalised students, who do not have access to private coaching, its co-founder Dr Ketan Deshmukh, told PTI.
Pungati attended the free coaching classes at LFU daily prior to the COVID-19-induced lockdown. He was later forced to attend virtual classes from an ashram school in Hemalkasa in Gadchiroli due to the lack of internet and phone connectivity in his village. Shilaskar, whose father works on someone else's land and has a meagre earning, came to know about the free coaching classes through his seniors. He studied for NEET from his village with guidance from LFU mentors online.
Deshmukh said they have had a special batch named 'Ulgulaan' for Melghat region students since 2017. "Majority of the mentors at LFU are senior medical students. This year 25 of our students, including three from the tribal regions of Maharashtra, will be taking admissions in medical colleges. Many of those who have received training at the LFU have even joined us as teaching faculty," he said.
