The Hindu : Front Page : Poverty makes their future uncertain

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Poverty makes their future uncertain

P. Sudhakar

N. Mallika, R. Muthupandi, centre, and S. Esakki, right.

TIRUNELVELI: Three Dalit students from below poverty line families in the district have scored high marks in the Plus Two examinations and secured seats in government medical colleges on merit. But uncertainty prevails over their continuing higher studies due to abject poverty.

The meritorious students are N. Mallika, R. Muthupandi and S. Esakki, all hailing from Vasudevanallur, a small town about 75 km from here on the Tenkasi–Madurai National Highway.

Mallika, daughter of E. Natarajan, labourer in a stone quarry in Kerala, bagged the first rank in her school with 1,126 marks.

Mallika applied for medicine since she had scored 193 in physics, 196 in chemistry and 192 in biology and got a seat in Tirunelveli Medical College.

Similarly, Muthupandi (1,084 out of 1,200) and S. Esakki (1,093) have got seats in Tuticorin and Kanyakumari government medical colleges.

But their hereditary property of poverty has kept these three students away from entering the medical colleges.

“While Muthupandi’s parents are working in a brick kiln, Esakki lost his father, M. Santhiyagappan, only in December 2006 after a prolonged illness for about 17 years,” said Veerapuththiran, an advocate in Vasudevanallur.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page