By CP Jain:
I am an Indian citizen. And being an Indian, I want to serve my country and this is the ultimate goal of my life. I can’t join the Indian army because I am not physically strong. But I can join ISRO or DRDO to serve the nation as I am a brilliant student and I am really good at academics.
I secured 92% in the 2011 secondary exams and bagged the 14th district-level rank. To fulfil my dream, I decided to choose my field of interest. Then I got admitted into Baldev Ram Mirdha Institute of Technology, Jaipur, for a four-year B. Tech. program in 2013 after the completion of my senior secondary exams. The institute is approved by AICTE, New Delhi and affiliated to Rajasthan Technical University, Kota.
However, soon, an incident occurred in my life and this ruined my career.
I had lost my mother during my school days. I was financially dependent on my father who was a retired servant from the Social Welfare Department, Government of Rajasthan and was a pensioner. I have two sisters and they are married. I secured 83.5% in the first year of the program. Unfortunately, on March 4, 2015, I lost my father.
I became helpless. I applied for education loans but because I was a minor (17 years old at that time), banks couldn’t sanction my loan as I didn’t have a guaranter which could only be any one of the parents as per their rules.
I knocked many doors for help like Jain Trusts and NGOs as I belong to the Jain community. But I couldn’t get help from anywhere.
My fees amount was very high. The college fee was INR 70000 and hostel fee was INR 56000 for one year. Then I approached the Director of the institute who gave me some time to deposit the fees.
But when he left India; the administrator and the Vice Principal asked me for blank cheques for guarantee purpose so that they could allow me to sit for the university exams of the fifth semester. I gave them two blank cheques from my brother-in-law’s account.
In the sixth semester, they asked me to deposit INR 50000. I managed to pay it with the contribution given by my friends. But again, the institute changed their word and they didn’t allow me to sit for the mid-term exams. When I got my sixth semester result, I came to know that my career was ruined because I got very poor marks.
It spoiled my future. I felt my dream had been washed out. I was helpless once again. Then I applied for education loan at the District Minority Welfare Office (DMWO) in Bikaner as I was 18 years of age in 2016. They sanctioned the loan and deposited one installment of the loan in my account last week. I deposited it to the college.
But the institute asked for the remaining fees which I can’t get now as the DMWO told me that they can sanction only one installment per year. The institute has not allowed me to sit for the mid terms once again and they are asking for the remaining fees which I can only furnish the next year. Now they are going to ruin my future by not letting me fill the examination form of Rajasthan Technical University.
They have increased my hostel fee to INR 60000. And I’m the only one who had to pay the fees for examination forms, six times.
I am not sure what I should do now. Should I sell my house which is the only place where I can live? Should I not try to fulfil my dreams because I don’t have money? [envoke_twitter_link]Has the education system in India really become a business?[/envoke_twitter_link] Will students like me always be treated like this? Don’t I have the right to fulfil my dreams to serve my people? Will these institutes always do their business in this manner?
These private institutes have a lot of money yet they are turning our education system into a business.