“The number you’re trying to reach is not available at the moment,” echoes the recording whenever someone attempts to contact R Dhanusha, a tribal community girl from Sillaiyur village in Tamil Nadu, who has secured a centum in Math in the Class X public examination, the results of which were declared recently.
As there is no mobile phone tower near her place, it’s quite tricky to reach Dhanusha and her parents, who are cashew farm workers in the village at Vannadu panchayat, nestled in the hills of Pachamalai. In order to speak to The New Indian Express, she had to walk over a kilometre to get connectivity.
Girl topped the school as well
A student of Government Tribal Residential Higher Secondary School in Chinna Illupur, Dhanusha is the only student among all the five tribal residential schools in the Thuraiyur region to score a centum in the Board exams this year.
Scoring a total of 450 marks, Dhanusha is also the topper of her school.
Responsibility and study
With her voice breaking over the call, Dhanusha said, “I travelled back and forth to my village on weekends to work alongside my parents in the field. When my father goes to work in the downhill area, I take responsibility of the field along with my mother.”
Rathika, mother of Dhanusha, said, “We are cashew cultivators by profession. Along with her studies, she helped us a lot with work. Whatever she opts to study, we will stand by her and help her achieve her dream.”
Headmaster of school expressed pride
P Selvam, Headmaster of the school, said, “We are happy that our student has achieved a centum. She has scored 450 in the exam and topped in the school. Hailing from a poor background, she was able to achieve this through hard work under teachers’ guidance. Since she is staying in the hostel, we gave her focused training.”
He added, “If she had scored more than 90 in English, she might have scored above 480, setting a record for the highest marks scored by a student in the school’s history. We are aiming for more centum in the next year.”
The same school achieved two centum in Science last year in the Class X public examination, as per sources.
Dhanusha said, “I want to become a Collector (IAS officer) and do good for the people in my area. I want to thank my teacher R Suji and the headmaster for making this possible.”
