The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Poverty, not disability, stands in the way of the medicine aspirant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Poverty, not disability, stands in the way of the medicine aspirant

By S. Prasad

Gowri — her goal is to become a doctor.

DHARMAPURI, JULY 23. On merit she qualified for a medical seat but her ill fortunes stand as a hurdle in achieving her goal. Her abject poverty plays a spoilsport in realising her childhood ambition of becoming a doctor.

T. Gowri (17), the elder of two daughters of G. Thangavel and T. Devaki was afflicted with polio in the right leg in the eighth month of her birth. Though she was physically disabled it did not deter her parents from sending her to school.

At the age of five, Gowri went to the Municipal school at Dharmapuri where she studied till Standard VII. Her father was a labourer and her mother was doing household chores and they could not support their daughter to continue her studies. But timely assistance from well-wishers helped Gowri continue education. Gowri, a Tamil medium student, got 1,058 out of 1200 in Plus-Two (170 in Physics, 183 in Chemistry, 189 in Biology and 192 in Mathematics) and scored 264.17 out of 300 in the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations.

Inspired excellence

Inspired by Swami Vivekananda and the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Gowri wants to serve the society as a doctor. But poverty deters Gowri from realising her dream. She got a seat in the Tirunelveli Medical College and paid Rs. 9, 000 in three instalments, courtesy well-wishers and relatives.

But Gowri still has to pay for books and tuition and hostel fees for five years. Her immediate task is to pay the tuition fees, which her parents are trying to raise through friends and neighbours.

Her parents have appealed to charity organisations and written to the Chief Minister's cell seeking help.

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