SC/ST finance corp willing to fund Dalit teenager’s IIT dream
ADDITIONAL HELP Volunteers to give lowinterest loan to his father for self employment
The Rajasthan SC & ST Finance & Development Cooperative Corporation has offered educational loan to a poor Dalit student who is facing financial problem in arranging fees for admission in an IIT.
Hindustan Times was the first to report on June 15 about Dalit student Dilip Kumar’s financial struggle in his pursuit to get admission in mechanical engineering course at IIT.
Kumar, 17, bagged an All India Rank of 128 in the scheduled caste category of the IIT-JEE Advanced 2017, and 7,675 in the general category. His father is a mine worker from Jodhpur’s Khudiyana village.
After reading the news report, the Corporation’s managing director Dr BL Jatawat approached Hindustan Times to facilitate educational loan for Kumar.
Jatawat told HT that the student was informed about education loan. “The Dalit student can take education loan up to ~20 lakh which he has to repay after getting a job on completing his education,” he said.
While banks provide educational loan at an average interest rate of 12%, Kumar can avail him loan at interest rate of 4%-to-6% from the Corporation. “We will try to exempt the interest rate and, in that case, he will have to pay only the principal amount.”
The Corporation also volunteered to provide low-interest loan to Kumar’s father for self employment. “Our prime aim is to see Kumar doesn’t stop from taking admission at IIT due to fund crunch,” he said.
The teenager acknowledged the help extended by the Corporation. He said the counseling for admission would start later this month where he would learn about the admission fees. “However, I have learnt from sources that the admission fees for scheduled caste students at IIT for first year is around ~1.25 lakh, which is also reimbursed on completing education. But initially, students have to pay the amount,” he said.
Kumar’s father Bhagwanaram, 50, is a mine worker in Jodhpur. Bhagwanaram earns around ~70,000 a year from his work as a labourer and agriculture. His wife Kamla Devi, 46, works as a part-time labourer. The couple has five sons.
The success story began three years ago when Kumar scored 85% marks in Class 10 after which a teacher advised him to take coaching from Kota.