Mittal Parmar with her husband Chetan(Written by Suresh Chaudhary and Shashank Raj)
Mittal Parmar had to drop out of class X in 2009. Her family could not afford to fund her education. Ten years later, at 25, she passed, her higher secondary exam, scoring 89.71 per cent.
Her photographer husband Chetan’s support helped her fulfill her ambition, she says.
Skipping class XI entirely, sheappeared directly for Class XII exams of the Commerce stream in the open category. She had scored 83.38 per cent in Class X in 2009, and is the youngest of four siblings and the first in her family to have completed her higher secondary education.
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After she dropped out of school 10 years ago, Mittal was employed in the work of pasting sequins on sarees. After she got married to Chetan in 2016, she continued the work from home.
“My father is a tailor and he could not afford my education. My mother fell ill for prolonged periods and there was no one in the family to take care of the house,” she says. However, her inclination towards studies could not keep her away for long.
Mittal excitedly tell us she was always good at studies. All she wanted was some financial support to begin her studies and her husband has been a blessing.
She had taken tuitions from a teacher, Ashwinbhai Thummar. “Within two days of my interaction with her and the way in which she responded I came to know that she will do well,” said Thummar. “Teachers can easily identify students with potential thanks to our experience. Accounts (subject) was hard for her as she skipped the 11th standard and we had to start from basics.”
Mittal says, “I recently got a job opportunity to work at a public bank’s office in Bapunagar but my goal in life is to be a Chartered Accountant.”
However, Chetan expressed concern that there were no higher education institutes in the vicinity of their rented home in Bapunagar. “Though there are only two of us at home now, as my parents live with my elder brother’s family and there are no other responsibilities to take care of, we still have to work things out, as commuting to a college would be difficult,” he says.
The authors are interns with The Indian Express
